John Downer's Supernature provides a companion to the BBC television show, charting the boundaries between science and the supernatural with an examination of extrasensory perception and unusual animal abilities. From life forms which survive under the most adverse conditions to the hidden language of animals, this surveys some extraordinary abilities of the animal world.

My Aunt Dorothy (now deceased) was a direct blood line to Thomas Jefferson. Her people were of Sally Hemings. In the 1940's she collected from the Jefferson estate. This is true, Jefferson did father slave children. My father Marcus Smith witnessed my aunt in her collecting from the Jefferson's estate. She has grandchildren in California. California was her final resting place. However, she resided my years in Michigan before going to California. My Aunt went to Jefferson's estate in Virginia, where she met her white relatives (back in the 40's). My father's mother, Georgia now deceased,was a sister of Dorothy. My understanding is they had different fathers. However, it is all in the family. My father is still alive to tell the story. My name is Karen. You contact my email address at kar1@hotmail. I would love to hear from you. I am proud to be in the family of Thomas Jefferson. My Aunt's blood and Jefferson's blood flow through me also. My father is a living artifact, he is a living witness. He was there, he can strengthen the story. Sally had children from Thomas Jefferson our family make up one of those branches of offspring. Thank you, I would love to hear from you, Please respond

John White, M.D. is a psychiatrist, bible teacher, and former missionary.His experiences in these roles give him the qualifications to sort out for us the claims and controversies about what God is doing--or not doing-- around the world. As a Bible teacher he examines revival experiences being reported today, and with the cautious insight of the scientifically-trained physician subjects them to rigorous scrutiny. The church--the entire church--should listen to White. A few chapter titles show his concerns: "Has It Ever Happened before?" "Should We Fear Emotions?" Are Revival Experiences Psychological?" "Are Revival Experiences Spiritual?" "Preparing for Revival" and so on for 11 more chapters. Near the end of this excellent book, White writes: "[The] earnest cry to God in prayer at a critical point in the church's history had incredible results. It is time to prove God again." (p.235) This work will certainly help to promote the human preparation for a revival which will come when God chooses to pour down his blessings.

This compact volume is a substantial contribution to our understanding of our common humanity, shared with all persons, especially those on the margins "of society, of economy, of health," and, I might add, of attention. John Kavanaugh has forged a consistent ethic of life that calls all killing into question, out of respect, reverence rather, for our wounded humanity, whether we are unborn, despairing, calculating of "worth," or legally condemned to death. Particularly noteworthy is Kavanaugh's analysis of our soulless consumer mentality that has degraded our humanity to a mere commodity manipulated by market forces. The price is outrageous (Georgetown prefers to supplement basketball rather than philosophy, I guess!), but you will certainly want to share this good news with your fellow human persons.

Captain Brian Power-Waters is intimately knowledgeable concerning the air traffic control system. As an airline captain, he brings the knowledge associated with his twenty-six years as a line pilot. Coupled with his close relationship with air traffic controllers for over twenty years, he is acutely aware of and acquainted with the problems of both professions. Captain Power-Waters provides us with a first time insight into the workings of the air traffic controller profession. The challenges and the many problems encountered in the current air traffic control system.

Margin for Error: None is a critical appraisal of the air traffic control system of the US ... The Author's admiration for the air traffic controllers and others working in the system is a content feature of this book as is his disregard for the FAA ... Aircraft Illustrated

After reading Margin for Error: None I have come to the conclusion that I wish I had 16,000 PATCO members with your attitude. I am sure that the morale problems that exist among ATC would soon be healed. Thanks again for your kind words and your supportive attitude. It is sincerely appreciated by all Air Traffic Controllers. Domenic V. Torchia, Regional V.P, PATCO West

John Steele Gordon is an engaging writer. Anyone familiar with his magazine articles in American Heritage knows he is adept at holding readers' attention over several thousand words.

This book reads like a collection of magazine articles. The chapters focus on different personalities or events that shaped (or epitomized) Wall Street over the last two centuries. While there are some attempts to link subjects to their past (notably in the development of rules and regulations), the book reads more like a collection from various time periods rather than a synthesized whole.

What the reader gets are interesting snapshots. And Gordon does make them interesting. Always an engaging writer, he mixes the right amount of fact and commentary to keep a credible story moving along at a nice pace. The author does justice to many fascinating personalities (Hamilton, Fisk, Gould, Vanderbilt, Morgan, Greene, Kennedy, Milkin and Boesky), and events (panics, depression, corners, theft, corruption, manipulation) that have shaped the American financial system since the dawn of our Republic. The chapters are just long enough to gain an appreciation for the subject at hand, but not too long as to bore.

This book is not a study or treatise on financial products or their development. These are mentioned in passing so as to give familiarity to the reader. But, do not expect to learn about how stocks, derivatives or mutual funds (etc., etc.) work in detail here.

While this is not an in depth study of the Street, it is an excellent and engaging survey that will interest the general reader.

If money interests you, then you should read this book. As a Wall Street professional I was enthralled by this easy read about the history of Wall Street. Mr. Gordon does an excellent job of taking us from Wall Street's unambitious start as a northern line of defense for a wilderness trading post to the its role as the most powerful stretch of pavement on Earth.

Some of the unique things you will learn include

1. Who invented modern capitalism (hint: Tulips, 1700th century)? 2. The establishment of our federal tax system 3. What structure made NY city the US's largest city 4. Wall Street's first and greatest speculators 5. The creation of the Federal Reserve System

Gordon does a great job of introducing us to the most powerful people the world may have ever known. The most notable include JP Morgan, arguably the world's greatest banker; Hetty Green, the richest (and most paranoid) woman in the world; Charles Merrill, the man who brought Wall Street to Main Street; and Michael Milliken, the world's most famous Wall Street villain to wear a toupee.

The story of Wall Street is truly extraordinary. Its history is littered with courage, greed, jealousy, genius and lots of stupidity! John Steele Gordon does an admirable job of hitting all the salient points while making the journey enjoyable and memorable. Buy this book and read it!

Even though I have another book on the history of Wall Street in my reading stack, I picked up a copy of the book just because John Steele Gordon wrote it. Many of you will recognize his voice on NPR and in American Heritage. In fact, Mr. Gordon's article is the first section I read when I receive the newest copy of American Heritage. Mr. Gordon always spins a surprising story each month and this book is no different.

Mr. Gordon covers 350 years of history in just 300 pages, however, don't let the title fool you, it really only covers Wall Street until about 1995, not 2000 (a minor quibble). The book contains many interesting stories along the way such as how Chase Manhattan started off as a water company and why Merrill Lynch was named after two brokers, not one (I didn't realize that).

As always no book on the history of Wall Street would be complete without the Erie Railroad, the "Scarlet Women of Wall Street." Mr. Gordon relives the Erie tale with relish! I could almost see Daniel Drew laughing as he printed additional shares of Erie stock as fast as Commodore Vanderbilt could buy them. The rest of the players of Wall Street take their turn in the book, including J.P. Morgan, Fisk and Gould, Joe Kennedy, Alexander Hamilton, and a few women such as Hetty Green also appear.

Gordon takes time to explain many concepts about how the stock market came to be today including stories on the first corner in Wall Street history to the most recent, the Hunt's brothers attempt to corner the silver market in 1980. Mr. Gordon also explains that each time a player uses the market to their advantage, the invisible hand of Adam Smith pushes the market to correct the "wrongs."

Though it is not one of Mr. Gordon's main points in the book, he does point out throughout the book that the "Robber Barons" of old had many friends/allies in government that turned a blind eye to their schemes.

This book is filled with the history of people of Wall Street, not numbers! Pick it up, you'll find that Mr. Gordon's cornered the market on the history of Wall Street!

Well, I hate to be the wet blanket who gives this production less than glowing reviews, but here goes: I am a loyal fan of Crossing Over and am tremendously impressed by John Edward's ability. However, I've got to say that I find this 6-volume cassette compilation filled with way too much fluff: the first side of each of the cassettes uses up only about 1/2 of the tape. You then must fast forward through the remaining 1/2 of blank tape, and flip it over to the second side, where the practical exercises begin. This is wasteful and a pain. My best estimate is that the entire set could easily have been condensed into two - perhaps three - tapes total. To you, the consumer, it means that you've just spent a whole lot more money than actually necessary on blank and worthless tape. Tapes 3 and 4 do contain fairly valuable information and follow-up exercises. Tapes 1, 2, 5 and 6 provide some interesting background and John's personal anecdotes, but probably not much use to anyone who has a reasonable grounding in subjects psychic. For the sake of Tapes 3 and 4, the investment was not a total loss, but a costly enterprise nevertheless.

I purchased these tapes several months ago and have followed them very closely. Not only have I experienced greater relaxation, I have experienced more awareness of myself and my emotions. John's voice is easy to listen to which makes the relaxation techniques very pleasant to follow. It is great to actually to know what he looks like because when you are one on one on the tapes, it is very easy to visualize him walking you through the exercises. John is a gift to this earth and we should appreciate him for how precious his words really are. If you buy these tapes, you will not be disappointed, you'll be enriched for years to come.

If you have ever had psychic experiences (I've had them constantly since I was a kid with no idea what was going on) and want to develop them further, look no further, these are the tapes for you. John does an excellent job of teaching you how to prepare your physical body to relax so that the inner workings of your mind or soul, can develop. I truly wish I would have gotten these tapes when he first made them available. How many other true mediums are willing to help others develop what we are starting to recognize? In educating us, John also answers numerous questions we all have, including things that religion teaches us is "taboo" simply because we don't understand what they really are, such as psychic tools. If it weren't for John, I wouldn't be inviting those back whom I turned away years ago (begging them to leave me alone, because I was scared) and didn't know what was happening to me. Now thanks to him and his tapes, I am educated on what's going on and what my choices are. Since you're probably wondering about the title of this rating, here's your answer: I get stressed alot, have a lot of responsibility with my job and my family and I know when I get really stressed out, instead of promising myself a rich dessert once I get through this or that, I look forward to rewarding myself with listening to one of my favorite tapes in this series, or if you will, my "dessert". I always fall asleep and when I wake up (hearing John count me back), I feel so good! I'm ready to go again. If you think you're going to purchase them then make yourself copies and put the originals on an auction site--think again, you won't want to let these tapes go, trust me! I highly recommend these tapes. Buy them, you will be glad you did. Take care everyone & be good to each other.

I really don't know how to review this novel; there is simply too much the novel has to say to cover it all her in a short review. Anything I write will be totally inadequate. I can only say that The Power and the Glory is certainly one of the greatest novels written in the Twentieth Century.

The novel is the story of a priest in Mexico in a state which has outlawed Christianity. The priest is trying to get out of the state and away from the athiestic lieutenant who's attempting to capture him, but the priest's Christian duty keeps calling him back into the state and into danger. The priest is also waging a war within himself. He is a good man but definitely a sinner, and he struggles to cure himself of his vices and struggles to believe that he can gain salvation.

The Power and the Glory assaults the reader on all levels. Greene explores so many aspects and paradoxes of Christianity. He looks at the great beauty that can be found in sin. He looks at how love and hate can be so similar. Greene reveals how the priest's life has had great meaning even thought the priest may not realize it. Greene reveals man as living in a "Wasteland," and he also reveals the way to find meaning in it. The characterizations of all of the characters really carry the novel. There are so many insights that can be gained from reading about the priest, the lieutenant, and the mestizo. The Power and the Glory is truly a magnificent novel which should be taught and studied everywhere.

I am only now discovering Graham Greene; this was the second of his works that I've read. It is not a book to be taken up for a little light entertainment; I'm still digesting it, you might say. It stays with a person. Superficially, it is about government oppression and man's inhumanity to man; more specifically, it is about love and its dual power to transform and destroy. Read it on whatever level you choose; basically, it is about a Roman Catholic priest struggling with his faith and intense guilt while trying to elude the forces of a government that has declared his religion illegal. I came away from it moved and disturbed, which in my opinion (humble tho' it be) is the purpose of literature: to create a mirror for the reader herself. What flaws do I posess that masquerade as virtue, what overpowering desire truly motivates my actions? In this novel the main character, the whiskey priest, takes flight not only from his persecutors but also from himself; in the end he finds he can only redeem himself by returning. And there I find another question to haunt me...did the priest indeed find redemption in the end?

Hello reader. One thing i should tell you if you consider to read "The Power And The Glory" by Graham Greene: This book is marvelous and if you start reading it in the evening, you will not cut until you have finished the book. The story is thrilling and exciting. It's amazing how you can tremble, run, fear with the priest. You can feel this urgency of not getting identified or caught by anyone. It is a bit difficult to read though, due to the marginal stories like the one of Mr. Tench. But still the main story is really challenging, it makes you humble before God, to whom still belongs all the power and the glory.

For a book which purports to see accurately into the future, the Friedmans seem to have been unable to completely grab onto the past. Most unpardonable are technical inaccuracies (like World War II torpedos that go 100 miles per hour) for the premise so often repeated seems to be that technology has begun to feed upon itself, i.e., become "senile". Even if that's so, their wholesale indictment of entire proven weapon systems (like Aegis or even gun projectiles, for that matter) ignores both the incremental nature of such developments as well as fiscal constraints that channel them (e.g., "Star Wars"). While reading about exoskeletons and plasma weapons is entertaining, shooting wars even 10 years from now may not employ much if any of this speculative technology. That being the case, the Friedmans may have tried, then, to go a vision too far.

This book is more than the grocery store's blase` litany of new gizmos that has Tom Clancy's name slapped on it. So if you are intersted in a book that natters about specific weapons systems ad nauseum, you are better off shopping there or else watching the Discovery Channel. The Friedmans' book is useful because it sees technology as more than a collection of shiny and expensive toys that make loud noises; although utterly essential and often defining our ability to achieve our ends, technology is always a pillar within a grander scheme.

The value in this book is its capability to trace a concept historically, and provide us with a valuable and critical perspective of our strategic strength. Consequently we are able to analyze something transcending the, "Our ship is better than their ship," manner of thought.

So a framework of strategic thought, within which technological capability relative to others is essential for analysis, gives us insight into future needs. Whether their conclusions are valid are certainly open to debate; the approach, however, is certainly valuable.

Like, 'The Coming War With Japan,' this book is able to use multiple levels of understanding to present their arguments.......... the importance of the Friedmans' work is growing everyday. Worth the read.

This book directs one's attention to the discussion the way we have thought about war will no longer be as relevant in the future. The notion of "weapons reaching and obsolete status" points to a central thesis in the book--that America will remain the preponderant military and technical power of the 21st century. This of course may be a comforting piece of information for policy shapers and makers, and business peoples. But is it really ? Such dominance by one nation is bound to lead to the shifting of the balance of power among nations unless the movement toward internationalization proves to be successful. However, aspiring powers and emerging nations that wish to be freed from this American dominance may -- and there seems to be information to support this -- seek weapons of mass destruction to counter US global hegemony.

This book made a clearly argued case for American Dominance, but it does not help us to see the political/moral future. But within its parameters, its an "eye-opener."

I purchased this book for learning how to call Excel worksheet functions in VB, but I didn't get it. This is a difficult topic as the syntax is strange (This is a frequently asked quation in Google's excel focum).

This book devotes too much to VB, not enough to Excel specific functions. Or the Excel part is way out of proportion. Many chapters may be removed to make it concise: chapter 1, 5, 6, 25 - 28, and any references to Lotus1-2-3, Quattro Pro, XLM macro. Replace Part VII by how to interface to 300+ Excel functions.

On software reuse, one should always use those tools that are available (and tested). The author seems to favor duplicating Excel functions in VB. On page 293, he wrote on sorting an array, " workaround is to transfer your array to a worksheet range, sort it using Excel's commands, and then return the result to your array. But if speed is essential, it's better to write a sorting routine in VBA."
First, I doubt about the speed claim. Second, even if the speed gain were true, taking the time to write a new (and reliable) sorting routine is hardly justified in practice. Third, what about the other Excel functions you have to use tomorrow ?

In the same way that PC World columnist, John Walkenbach, simplified our lives with 'Excel 2000 Formulas', he has now enriched them with 'Power Programming with VBA'. If you've already mastered Excel and need to develop customized applications, this book will soon have you deep into the inner workings of VBA to get you up and writing code without delay.

As with his other books, his style is clear and precise, and the text is arranged in a simple-to-reference way. The page layout is excellent, giving easy-on-the-eye icon notes, references and tips. Even so, as with 'Excel 2000 Formulas' I quickly found myself in charge of a colored highlighter picking out the bits that were important to me. The author also has a flowing style of writing so you don't feel you're working through a manual, It's more like a fun day out, with new discoveries on every page.

VBA had always remained something of a mystery to me until I got stuck into 'Power Programming'. Now (still with a bit of prompting) I'm really getting the hang of it, and finding, again, that I can streamline my workbooks and impress my colleagues.

As a high-end user for Excel I recently took a VB 6 programming class at my local Jr. Collge, hoping to get some good VBA education. While the class was invaluable, this book is a MUST for anyone who creates complex Excel spreadsheets and wants to incorporate powerful macro's and VBA code. A solid knowledge of Visual Basic 6 is helpful, but not required, if you want to get the most from this book. I've looked for a great VBA book for several months and this one is the best I've found.

If you're already a professional developer, then I seriously doubt you'll like the book because it devotes a lot of space to the fundamentals of VBA and programming.