I have used this text three times for teaching a fatigue course.

This text is well written. It is clear and understandable in the presentation of concepts. It covers the right amount of material for a one semester undergraduate elective course in fatigue, however, it's too basic for gradutate level study. The three apporoaches to fatigue life analysis (stress-life, strain-life, and crack growth) are clearly explained along with a cursory but useful coverage of Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics. Examples are clearly laid out. One nice feature is the summary of important concepts and equations at the end of each chapter. Another nice feature is chapter 6 which compares and reviews the strenths and limits of applicability of each method.

A full chapter should be added regarding the statistical considerations of fatigue analysis (this important topic is completely skipped). The notation used is inconsistent and confusing at times, particularly with regard to stress/strain amplitude versus range. The homework problems are sub-par. There are relatively few numerical problems compared to typical texts. There are incompletely defined problems and misleading/confusing problems. This is the weakest part of the text.

The book is a compilation of submissions by well trained and qualified practitioners but it does presume a good degree of understanding of portfolio theory as in many cases it is a matter of tweaking around the edges for enhanced performance.

Going, Going, Gone works around the premise that the book willdissapear, right before your very eyes, as you complete theactivities. Every single page (including the covers and even the binding) is meant to be ripped out and made into paper airplanes, used to wrap presents, cut out to make a deck of cards, or even be mailed to the president! This book is great fun and educational along the way.

If you are looking for a 'how to' guide to havens: tips on interesting and secure locations, security, and ways to add atmosphere to a character's haven this is not for you. This book basically just gives you ten or so sample havens, most of which are just strange and stupid. Storytellers might be able to include some of theis stuff into stories, but for players it is ll but useless.

I really enjoyed reading this book! It's very funny, it has alot of neat facts, cool scary stories, and lots of great stuff to keep you entertained. This book is alot of fun at sleepovers. Especially when reading the scary stories. I'd reccomend this to people who are looking for a book with lots of facts, stories, and quizzes. Hope you enjoy!

This book was a terrible dissapointment. The author claims to have been anvisor to Pharoh, Tribal Chief and beloved leader in many of his past lives. I find his delusions of granduer in poor form. I was so disgusted with the author that I chose not to finish reading this book. The writing techinque was poor, The infromation given was scattered and hard to follow. The author must think his audience a fool who will beleive anything he writes. It is like he didn't even try to produce a quality book, just adding another title to his list. Have you ever met someone who would lie to make friends? That is the impressinn I got from Jess Stern. Don't buy this book . It is a waste of your time and money.

first i apologize for using this forum. i wish to comment on Edgar Cayce, on the millennium, by Mr Stearn . i was unable to find the proper outlet for this book. i was disapointed in the content of the book. it failed to provide any real insight into the millennium. the ideas in this book could be summed up in very few words. Mr. Stearn feels that there will be no catastrophic events to mark the millennium, just a series of unidentified events, with no specifics given to back up exactly what or when any event will take place. this was pourly refferenced. please take the time to read and display examples of mr. Cayce's readings that pertain to this title. i expected to have the prophets words on the subject not Mr. Stearns personal views. the name EDGAR CAYCE should not be in the title of this book. i own and have read many of the books extrapolated from the readings of Mr. Cayce including, The Sleeping Profit, and this book should not be included in the series !

This book is about the past lives of several of Edgar Cayce's friends and family members and neighbors who were interviewed by the author. Interesting and easy to read for those who want to know more about reincarnation, it also provides some historical insights into life during ancient Egypt and other periods of history.

I think that the autor completely missed the complex background and tradition that guide the Rokugani world. Characters in this book go around dressed in leather like some ... bikers, touch dead without any hint of repulsion, take gift at the first giving without the customary two refusal. Lion samurai are bold ... and not the honorable and stalwart warrior who are depicted on the whole Rokugan fictions.Finally the title is all the way very fitting because there are hardly two chapter without a fighting, this would have been not so bad if the combat have had some mean but the main character go around ... breaking bones only to make a show of himself.
Not to mention the main opponent, a Bayushi lord worth of the lesser of the Crane jester, a plain unimaginative man who throw wave after wave of thugs hoping that someone casually [destroy]his enemy, personally i think very differently of a Scorpion samurai, even one not very cunning. Last but not least this book bring me a very strong sense of RPG flavour, in a scene some paesants bring Kaneka a pot with a mixture that can heal his wounds. "Please honored master take this Potion of cure serious wounds" that is what i have thinked when i read this passage...

Wind of War was a huge disappointment. The author seems to have a very weak grasp of Rokugani society and custom. In fact, take out all of the bowing and references to katana and yari and this story could have taken place anywhere. There is no sign of the complex system of etiquette that governs all social interactions in Rokugan. The Scorpion Clan provides the story's villains but the characters behave nothing like the Scorpions of previous novels. Their leader is a buffoon, easily intimidated, short of temper and extremely heavy-handed - the complete opposite of what one would expect from a Bayushi lord. It is absurd to think that a political mastermind like Hantei Naseru would have anything to do with such a man. The Scorpion clan mandate to protect the empire at all costs, even if it means the sacrifice of their honor is disregarded and these samurai are reduced to nothing more than a band of thugs and extortionists. The plot revolves around Akodo Kaneka but does nothing to advance the story of the conflict between the Four Winds. In fact, the late emperor's other children do not even appear in the novel and only Naseru is even mentioned by name. Kaneka spends the entire novel defending a village of poor farmers from their Scorpion oppressors. The book is full of combat scenes that go on for pages but do nothing to advance the plot (in one scene, seven pages are devoted to a fight between Kaneka and a gang of thugs). The author frequently repeats himself (Lord Zuto is constantly narrowing his eyes and Kaneka is always rolling his shoulders and stretching his neck). Perhaps the most upsetting thing about this book is that the author clearly did not do his homework. Besides failing to capture the feel of Rokugan's complex society, there are events in this book that contradict events that have already taken place in previous novels of the series. For example, in The Steel Throne the Water Dragon dumps Hatsuko at the feet of a cowering Akodo samurai and commands him to care for her. For some reason, the author feels compelled to retell this part of the story, but in his version, Hatsuko shows up at the Akodo stronghold with a hand-written note explaining her circumstances. Did the author not read the previous novels? And how did this get by the folks at Wizards of the Coast? Are they not concerned with the quality of these stories? The Four Winds are potentially interesting characters and their struggle for Toturi's throne could make for an excellent series of novels. This potential is wasted however, if each character is handled in a vacuum as in this novel. What a shame!

I've read all the L5R books, being a big fan of the setting, and the worst is by far the Crab book. This book, however, comes awfully close. The author shows little knowledge of the source material. The whole plot makes no sense for those who know quite a bit about the L5R world. (Why would Bayushi Yojiro openly authorize an entire army to kill Akoda Kaneka? Why would Naseru also be so open about it? Why would an Iuchi shugenja work for a scorpion daimyo? This Lion shugenja seems to be the most powerful magic-user alive, with no explanation or wonderment from the charectors.) Magic is also used a deus ex machina to solve all kinds of things. All the charectors and plot are shamelessly borrowed from Kurosawa movies. The book itself is quite boring, and the fight scenes(of which there are dozens)go on for WAY to long. On second thought, this IS the WORST L5R book, at least the Crab book didn't have inside jokes.

What a load of [junk]. I was written like a poor romance novel. I have never seen the words, "I'm sorry" or "Forgive me" used so many times in a novel. I simply could not get through it. I got bored reading the same stuff over and over and over and it was just too predictable, whether it was through regressive therapy or merely someone's erotic fantasies...and I have never seen so much joy expressed and using the whip over and over and over. I left it unfinished in my hotel room in Vancouver. It is just not plausible and too much fantasy and 'romantic' ~ and poorly written [junk] novel romance jargon thrown in there.... I am a student of the Inquisition and it is just does not make sense.

And when the Inquisitor says comments on how 'cute' something is. I don't think a) that would happen or b) cute was a term of the time.

Give me a break.

... I got bored reading the same stuff over and over and over and it was just too predictable, whether it was through regressive therapy or merely someone's erotic fantasies...

I sympathize with those who couldn't finish this. It's VERY unfortunate that the author chose the "historical novel" format because it effectively destroys what could have been a serious work by a serious researcher. "Antonia," our heroine, revealed under hypnosis back in the 1970s and 1980s a mass of details concerning a past life during the Spanish Inquisition. The author, who was the second hypnotherapist to work with Antonia, spent years (including trips to Spain) to verify the details. Some of these could be verified only in genuinely obscure, non-English sources and are quite amazing. The effort that the author put into this, and the seriousness of her research, are apparent in the Introduction and the End Notes -- which, unfortunately, are the only parts of the book that I found interesting. She says that she chose the "historical novel" format because the events as described in the hypnosis sessions were disjointed and she didn't want to bore us with a series of verbatim transcripts as in The Search for Bridey Murphy. Unfortunately (I seem to be over-using that word), verbatim transcripts can be RIVETING while this reads like an inane Harlequin Romance (which I'm familiar with only because my wife was hooked on them until I told her I'd set fire to the house if she brought home one more; drastic problems call for drastic solutions). Anyway, if you can force yourself to wade through this, you can be assured that it's based on serious research and could have been a lot better. It reminds me of Mark Twain's comment about composer Richard Wagner: "Wagner's music is really a lot better than it sounds." Unfortunately, ...

It must be deja vu all over again. I read this book back in 1970 or so, and thought it was pretty spectacular stuff. But like many works, it has not stood up well over the years. I recently found this book at a local library and decided to read it one more time. It was tedious, dated, and horribly stereotypical. The writer, Stearn is either ignorant of social mores, or an insensitive oaf who doesn't care about labeling those with mental illnesses as idiots, embeciles and morons. That was insensitive even back in '68 when the book was published, and even more by today's standards. There were several instances of just lack of insights and clumsy, repetitious jargon. I enjoyed this book the first time through, but now see that I was as ignorant as the writer was then. But certainly not as insensitive to the human conditions. Maybe the same author should have rewritten his book just as I re read it. maybe we both have changed. It gets one star only because I am fascinated by the subject matter, and figure that anything written on the subject is better than nothing at all.

This book isn't about learning how to regress yourself into your past lives, it's about one story of such. Reading it with that in mind you will enjoy it. Read it to find out you where a king in the 1300's then you will be disappointed.

I read this book back in 1970 when I was in my teens. I thought it was THE most fascinating book I had ever read. My friends and I would discuss the subject of reincarnation at length and were totally convinced of the validity of this book. Recently I spotted it at a Vintage book store and bought it to read again. I was so very disappointed at the smarmy way it is written and the ridiculous way she talks with a 60's kind of mentality about a life lived 100 years before. I'm glad I picked it up for sentimental reasons but it certainly is not of any value for it's subject matter.

Dr. Rhawn Joseph "forgot" to include scientific analysis of The Forgotten Ape = the Bonobos (see the book by de Waal published by the University of California Press). Dr. Joseph's 'University Press California' book is interesting and revealing as an example of how selective, incomplete coverage of evolutionary science can be used to justify the most extreme contemporary cultural expressions of misogynistic patriarchy. It could be used as a text book for study of that phenomenon. The photographs of nude women with motorcycles reflect the cultural ideology that makes the pursuit of valid science so difficult in America today.

This book at a superficial level appears to be intelligently written. If you are a scientist who has studied human sexuality you will know what a sham this book is. The author apparently doesn't understand the fundamentals of the field, like minimal parental investments and its evolutionary consequences. Don't buy this book.

Dr. Joseph is among that elite group of scientists who not only makes amazing discoveries but has the amazing ability to "think outside the box." In the 1970s Dr. Joseph was the first to demonstrate, conclusively, the role of early environmental and hormonal influences on sex differences in cognition, scientific studies he published in prestigious scientific journals. He has also made major discoveries in the field of evolution, including the evolution of language, religion, sex differences and sexuality, and has published this work in prestigious scientific journals such Behavioral and Brain Research and the Archives of Sexual Behavior. In this brilliant, tour de force, Dr. Joseph explains the origins and evolution of human female sexuality and points out unsettling facts that the patriarchs of science and culture would prefer to believe were not true. For example, among almost all species, almost all females will mate, whereas 30% to up to 75% of males never have sex. The same is true of the human female who, on average, has more sex partners, and certainly, more orgasms, that the average male. Females are built for sex: consider the millions upon millions of women who work as prostitutes. What human male could engage in sex with 5 or more women a day, for years? Women have more sex than men, though it is often with the same man. That is, whereas a few high status males have numerous sex partners, most males do not. However, who is having sex with these high status men? Women, lots of women, ...