This book is written to increase ones faith and boldness in prayer. Some of his approaches to prayer are challenging both in technique and from a theological perspective. I cannot say that I agree with all he says, but he does have success on his side. Furthermore, he causes one to stretch their own view of what is possible. And, this is a good thing!

The book is about how to live with prayer guided by Bible.
The metaphor of fourth dimension is apt one. In one context, a couple phones the author asking for blessing for divorce whom he has married;he prays in the night;sees the fact that they are healed; next day, when he meets the couple, each one starts to blame the other;exhort him "Don't pray for reunion";He knows that he seen in the fourth dimension their reunion. Within few minutes, they weep and find themselves reunited. In another context, he shows how once a rich couple started to give seed faith( a donation), they got themsleves encouraged to claim healing for their son, who was suffering for three years. He explains the relevance of both faith IN GOD and faith OF GOD, in getting miracles by prayer. His chapter on GOD'S address is very relevant for the oriental context. He also exhorts how sin of hatred,sin of fear, sin of inferiority and sin of guilt has to be got rid for effective prayerful life and how they can be done, with a lot of interesting examples. He also give a vivid picture of his own evolution of Chrisitian faith.
The message is:
Look at JESUS and walk on water .
Be a student of ANDREW school.

The Bible tells us that each of us has been given a measure of faith. Dr. Cho teaches in this book that it has been given to be used. He then proceeds to show how to use faith in the practical world of daily life. He describes the incubation process of "things hoped for" as consisting of: 1) envisioning a clear-cut objective 2) having a burning desire 3) praying for assurance and 4) speaking the word. Cho discusses the importance of what goes on in the heart and mind. The incubation takes place in one's thoughts. On page 31 he ties this into verbalizing what is in one's heart by noting "your word is the material which the Holy Spirit uses to create."
This mysterious fourth dimension is the dimension of the spirt. Dr. Cho teaches that it governs the material dimension. "Visions and dreams are the language of the fourth dimension, and the Holy Spirit communicates through them" (p. 44). He points out that both good and evil are created in that mysterious dimension. He goes on to bring into his discussion various passages from the Bible about desires and dreams.
Perfectionism is addressed. Dr. Cho says God does not use you because you are completely faultless, but because you have faith.
This book is solidly based on the teachings of Jesus Christ. Dr. Cho has the results to verify that he has practiced what he teaches.

This is a brilliant encapsulation of the rage of the artist. He has a contempt for mankind, society, it's progress, and yet can't escape society. He can be a "..." as artists where called back then, refuse to live a middle class existence, live a life of drunken debauchery, and yet that is just another societal role.
His imagery is powerful, his language self-deprecating and insanely sincere. It draws you in with its suffering.
At the end he finds his life as an artist, his passion, empty. It all ended with the gunshot to the hand that ended his affair with Verlaine. In short, he equates his artistry and homosexual affairs with hell, and a return to society redemption. This explains how he became a materialist later on in his life, a trader, even considering trading slaves.
It is a sad fate for someone who had such a poetic gift.
I still enjoy reading A Season In Hell, even after having read it many times. Ultimately, the work is flawed; it has a little too much affected insanity, angst, the sign of an adolescent work, but it is also full of pure poetry and promise.

These are the brilliant and mystical hallucinations of the original "enfant terrible" and his visionary raptures about poetry, innocence and guilt. Verbal deliriums suffused with pain and hatred, remorse and desperation, but also with a parodic, pathetic and fatalistic megalomania. The "mystical rage" transformed into pyromaniac wording. Poems in prose, of very high quality, which reflect the fury of the love-hate relationship of Rimbaud with life and Universe.

In the collection of prose poems and verse fragments that make up the short book A Season in Hell, begun in April 1873 in an outbuilding at Rimbaud's family farm at the village of Roche and completed by the end of August, he looks back in despair over his life as a poet. In one of the fragments, titled "Ravings number two" he talks about "the history of one of my follies. I invented the colors of the vowels!" he claims, and goes on: "I flattered myself that I had created a poetic language accessible...to all the senses...I expressed the inexpressible. I defined vertigos...I ended up regarding my mental disorder as sacred."

Rimbaud draws a picture of his affair with Verlaine in cynical terms, painting Verlaine as a weak and foolish virgin and himself as an "infernal bridegroom," a monster of cruelty. It wasn't far from the truth.

The last chapter of A Season in Hell is titled "Farewell." It has an air of exhaustion and relief about it. "I have tried to invent new flowers, new stars, new flesh, new tongues. I believed I had acquired supernatural powers. Well! I must bury my imagination and my memories. A fine fame as an artist and story-teller swept away! I! I who called myself magus or angel, exempt from all morality, I am given back to the earth, with a task to pursue, and wrinkled reality to embrace. A peasant!" A Season In Hell was finished in August 1873. Rimbaud somehow persuaded his thrifty mother to pay to have the book printed in Belgium. He sent his six author's copies to his friends and to men of letters in Paris. Many people see this manuscript as his farewell to literature. It certainly reads like that, although Enid Starkie believes that it was Rimbaud's farewell to a certain kind of literature--visionary, mystical, growing out of the selfish and hallucinatory lifestyle that had crashed to a halt only a few months before with his shooting and the jailing of Verlaine--and a commitment to something more humble and realistic. "Well, now I shall ask forgiveness for having fed on lies," Rimbaud wrote. He hoped that the French literary world would offer him the forgiveness that he was now prepared to seek, and give his book favorable reviews. He the proceeded to Paris to see how his book had fared.

Favorable reviews? He must have been mad. To those literary men, the dilettantes Rimbaud had mocked and despised a year or two earlier, Rimbaud was the insolent catamite who had destroyed their old friend Verlaine: sponged off him, wrecked his marriage, corrupted his soul and ruined his life, and then, when he had used him up, had turned him in to the police to face hard labour in a Belgian jail.

We have an eyewitness account of Rimbaud on the day when the last door in Paris had been slammed in his face, at the moment when he realized that the literary career he'd embraced so passionately was over. It was the evening of the first of November, 1873, a holiday, and the cafés and restaurants were crowded. The poet Poussin had joined some writer friends at the Café Tabourey. He noticed a young man alone in a corner, staring into space. It was Rimbaud. Poussin went over and offered to buy him a drink. "Rimbaud was pale and even more silent than usual," he later recalled. "His face, indeed his whole bearing, expressed a powerful and fearsome bitterness." For the rest of his life Poussin "retained from that meeting a memory of dread."

When the café closed, Rimbaud--who hadn't spoken to anyone all evening--set out to walk home through the late autumn countryside. It took him about a week. When he got to Charleville he built a bonfire and burned all his manuscripts. He didn't bother to collect the remaining five hundred copies of his book from the printer--they moldered there until they were discovered by a Belgian lawyer in 1901. That should have been the end of it. But Rimbaud couldn't quite let go. The following year in London he carefully copied out his prose poems, gathered together under the title, Illuminations. The year after that he tried to get them published. For the anguished but brilliant Rimbaud, giving up poetry must have been akin to weaning himself from a potent drug.

I liked this book because it was a true story. It happened in Johnstown,Pennsylvania on the day after Memorial Day in 1889. It was one of the worst floods anyone has ever experienced. I also liked this book because it had a lot of action unlike some other books I've read. For example, everybody was yelling and running because of the 20,000,000 tons of water that came from Lake Conemaugh after the dam broke. Eveything happened so quickly. It took less then 10 minutes from start to finish.

I would recommend this book to a friend because it tells about the history of one of the biggest floods. It happened in Johnstown, Pennsylvania on May 31,1889. More then 2,000 people died.

I liked this book because it was historical and true. It was about the biggest flood in the United States history. It happened on Merch 31,1889.
I also liked the book because something nice came out of something sad. The sad thing is that 2,209 people died. The good thing is that the people of nearby Pittsburg helped Johnstown. From all over Pittsbrug they loaded up a train with supplies of blankets, canned food, fresh water, and other goods for the people left in Johnstown.

As a former qualified diesel submarine Torpedoman in the '50s who made a WestPac run and who, in the '70s and '80s, was a civilian Special Agent with US Naval Intelligence assigned in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Iceland, in, I can say, that I have Been there, Done that!" The authors have apparently been there, and done that also. Many of the tales told, the events related, and the places mentioned (or at least similar ones) are all too real and still vivid in this reviewer's memory. On reading "Spindrift", they will become a part of yours also. Down to earth from the heart writing that "tells it like it is" (old memories not withstanding).

These stories are wonderful examples of real-life events seen by three brothers gifted with the ability to see humor and truth in everyday activity. They reflect the realism and intensity in extremely serious military situations that resolve into laughter in spite of all the pressure to "do it by the book." The stories are short and sweet, perfectly crafted, and they illustrate the great values and pleasures that come from a life in the service. Give yourself a treat and buy this book. At the end of it, you'll wish it was twice as long!

DAN BOB & PAUL THANKS FOR AN AMUSING BOOK OF SEA STORIES! AS ONE OF THE CHARACTERS, I FEEL HONORED TO HAVE BEEN A PART OF IT. DON COLYER U.S.M.C. RETIRED

I just returned from a trip from Ecuador where I used extensively Volume II of Ridgely et als' book. Having already some acqaitance with both the birdlife of the Neotropics and the bird books on the region I found the plates and the text still very useful when identifying the birds I and my travel mates saw. The weight and the size of the book is, however, making its use very difficult out in the field. The paperback editions did not hold very well during the three weeks, and publishing the book in 3 rather than two volumes could have helped that a lot. Even though the plates do not live up to the quality of the standard dictated by Guy Tudor in the, yet, two-volume handbook on South american birds, but I still found the pictures very informative. The text on habitat, altitudinal distribution, call, and the range maps often helped to narrow down the number of look-alike-species to a manageable level, especially when identifying hummingbirds or tyrant flycatchers.
All in all (and getting back to the question in the title) I could not call this book a champion in the league of field guides for being overweight (just try to carry it on the 'D' trail near Bellavista), although it truly deserves the four stars for the text and the plates alike. If you use it as a 'hotel' rather than a field guide or need it as a reference work for your home library (or have the plates and the text of Vol. II rebound separetely, as I did) you will appreciate the amount of information gathered in this book.

What a set of books, no doubt about that! For the first time, there is a full set of very useful color plates for one of the core South American countries. It is certainly a great accomplishment to have all the species pictured in color and on a more or less consistent standard. However, I do not agree with other reviewers who rave about the plates. Too many of the bird pictures have an overall flat appearance, with the color rendition being too simplistic or too bold. And while a good number of the birds are depicted in good or even unnessessarily large size, others would have benefitted from a larger sized rendition. Just because a species is small does not mean it has to be depicted in a diminutive size, unless there are larger species of the same group on the plate. Thus, while the plates are most useful, it is nevertheless disappointing to see that the overall standard (except for the plates being all in color) is rather lower than what was already published decades ago e.g. in "Birds of Colombia".
The field guide volume has excellent range maps and very helpful comprehensive texts. A somewhat more compact layout would have allowed for a smaller overall size of the book, however. The way to do it is being demonstrated in the book itself. The texts facing the plates use the suggested compact layout most convincingly. Spanish bird names are given in the main text, but, unfortunately, there is no index for them. To conclude, this is by far the more useful field guide for the general area than the also new "Birds of Peru" with its almost non-existing texts, lack of range maps and much less satisfactory plates. (P.S. This is a revised review as I think my first version did not do the book justice.)

I just received my copy of the The Birds of Ecuador and am very
pleased with it. I think the plates are very good with a lot of
detail. I compared plates for the same species in the book: A Guide To The Birds of Costa Rica, an excellent book also, and
found the detail to be better in The Birds of Ecuador. I also
really like the distribution maps for each species. I am
planning to do a birding trip to Ecuador and the maps will help
in making the travelling plans.

but not something that I was looking for. Don't have real life examples in detail.......

Much of Advanced Macromedia ColdFusion 5 Application Development will be a discussion of technologies and ideas with examples to demonstrate specific techniques. Advanced Macromedia ColdFusion 5 Application Development will also contain case studies to illustrate real-world examples of specific topics. ColdFusion 5 is a massive upgrade, and it adds lots of new features, including some designed specifically for advanced and power users. Advanced Macromedia ColdFusion 5 Application Development will address these issues and technologies, including: using clustering and fail-over technologies to ensure server uptime, using the new archive and restore features. server monitor and benchmarking, creating secure applications and integrating with existing security system, extending ColdFusion using COM/DCOM, CORBA, and the ColdFusion C and Delphi API's, using the Java integration options, customizing and modifying the client environment, writing custom tags and functions, ISP ColdFusion hosting issues, and working with XML and XSL. User Level: Advanced, 600pp

Within 1 chapter, I was already able to increase performance and get a quality return from this book. A must for every Cold Fusion Developer. It's part 2 of the Cold Fusion Bible!

The first 162 pages of this book are great. Steele could spin them off into a short textbook. The explanations of antibody diversity, gene rearrangement and hypermutation are really very good. The rest is a little hard to believe, and where the immune system is concerned doesn't even make sense. Adaptability and variability, not hard-coding, are key to the immune response, so it seems that what he proposes--that learned responses could be passed back into germ-line DNA--wouldn't even be benficial if it were to turn out to be true considering the rate at which most pathogens mutate. But, let the experts address that question. For an overview of antibody production, this is done well.

A book requiring remarckable courage in the orthodox scientific climate of today, given that Darwinian evolution is generally accepted and most views contrary are considered virtual heresy. The possibility of the passing on of acquired characteristics from a parent to an offspring was first proposed by Lamarck some 200 years ago. This new book suggests from experimental evidence gathered over decades that it is possible for immune functions to be passed from parent to offspring this prceeds via retroviruses being able to infect sex cells such as sperm and ovum. Certainly not an unreasonable possibility and given the strong evidence shown in the book not to be passed over lightly. Although the technical details of the biochemistry involved are at times heavy going the authors attempt to alleviate this through a useful glossary and explanations when necessary. Not easy to follow but worth the effort. The book certainly asks some major questions of accepted dogma.

Once again this book highlights that just when the accepted authorities are fixed and comfortable in their domain along comes something to surprise them and everyone, nature just can't stop being creative and interesting can it.

A book based on new scientific knowledge, not vague old ideas. The authors put forward precise statements and hypotheses about inheritance of acquired immunity. I find it very instructive for its vulgarization of molecular genetics and of the functioning of the immune system, which is not easy to find elsewhere. I also like its openness and its boldness, which will certainly be attractive for all inquisitive minds.

Read the workbook and found that although I'm sure that it is useful for others you really have to be of a christian faith to use this workbook. It does have many ideas and suggestions in terms of weight controll but I felt it emphasized to much on "God" and "problems with your family of orgin" and not enough on making us realized that we are in controll and we are responsible for our weight not anyone else. I would although recommend it to someone whose had a horrible childhood.

The Love Hunger Weight-Loss Workbook has literally changed my life. The workbook forced me to look into the issues behind Why I eat rather than What I eat. This book is an excellent tool for anyone looking to make permanent changes.

The book is easy to read and understand, and easy to use -it has daily readings which help you stay focused. Excellent tips that I had actually never heard before. Explains all the inner workings of your diet behaviors. I highly recommend it, and I've already bought it for several friends too.

"The Whiz Kids" met my expectations. It is great material for Phillies fans. Having grown up hearing the names of Ennis, Ashburn, Konstanty, Roberts and the rest, I wanted to read a good account of the first Phils pennant since 1915.

The ever humble Roberts (with the help of a professional writer) recounts his rise to the major leagues as well as the futile history of Phillies baseball. It's a nice, easy to read story that follows a tried formula: the team has a long history of losing, young players come aboard and develop into a close team, they exceed expectations and go to the World Series. There are plenty of scenes that flesh out the personalities and struggles of the team mates. Plenty of train trips and hotel stays. Tough game situations yeilding exciting victories or close defeats. Those looking for deep insights into the era should look elsewhere. In fact, I see this book aimed primarily at us Phils fans. Our banners are few, so we need to raise them high. These aren't Duke Snyder, Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese and the other "Boys of Summer." The Phillies of this era had one great year surrounded by several decent years. Only a couple of the names stand out these years later.

I give the book four stars because it served its purpose for me. If you are looking for light reading material about a cinderalla team, this could be for you as well.

This is a very well written account about a team that captured the hearts of an entire city. This is a great account of the surprising achievment of the 1950 Phillies. The excellent interviews of the players involved and the rehashing of the author is great. A very nostalgic and fact filled retelling of an exciting and fun filled year in baseball. A must read for all Phillie and historical baseball buffs.

Authors Paul Rogers and former Whiz Kid pitcher Robin Roberts have done a great job in bringing a memorable team back to life. Baseball books on teams usually involve New York teams and it is refreshing to read a book about a team that will always be remembered, not just by Phillies' fans, but by baseball fans across the country. Many of the names I came across in this book were merely pictures on baseball cards I started buying in the early '50's and this book provided me with some insight into their accomplishments on the ball diamond. There is a story behind each of those players' names I have in my mind, and the authors brought them to life in this book. If there was one drawback, if I may call it that, I found an excessive amount of play-by-play among the pages. However, I can live with that. The names of Robin Roberts, Curt Simmons, and Richie Ashburn are household baseball names, but I was also happy to read about lesser lights like Bubba Church, Mike Goliat, and Stan Lopata who were only pictures on baseball cards to me. Phillies' fan or not, if you like baseball history, you will enjoy this book.

Short story:

Overall a rather good book with a unique approach that focuses on qualitative techniques; it serves as a book which develops in the reader an understanding of differential equations rather than as a manual for simply solving them. It has, however, a few shortcomings, such as overemphasis on numerical methods and unchallenging problems.

Long Story:

This book was used in my first course in differential equations at Middlebury College, where I am a physics and math double major.

Advantages:

*A qualitative approach is employed to the solution but more importantly the understanding of differential equations. This approach forces the reader/student to use his/her inherent intelligence and creativity, rather than simply memorizing some formulas and techniques and mindlessly plugging and chugging.

*Applications are clearly related to the material rather than being the product of a trite, inconsequential link between the underlying mathematics and a real-world situation (all too often that is the case with math books).

*The CD Rom, when used appropriately, is useful in "bringing to life" the material and is a rather fun visual aide.

*Topics are usually well-explained (though in some cases the explanations seem rather murky and for that reason I would not recommend this for self-study).

Divadvantages:

*Too much emphasis on numerical methods. With computers around today to solve such problems in such ways, it would be better to keep numerical solutions to a minimum.

*Too strong a focus on biological/ecological problems and offered too few applications to areas like physics.

*Analytical methods could have been addressed a bit more thoroughly, as well as exemplified more frequently in the text. In place of solved problems, it seems, there were instead lines of computer code.

*The CD-Rom is pretty useless except as a fun toy; if you want something that will actually do the math for you, especially in the case of numerical problems, I recommend setting up an Excel document that can do Euler's method etc.

*The problems tended to be unchallenging.

As a differential equations instructor I used Boyce and DiPrima for many years. Its a good, solid presentation of differential equations and a great reference. However, I was always disappointed that my students ended up with no "feel" for differential equations. Also I became convinced that more methods were needed for nonlinear differential equations. After using a couple of other books which seemed to be slanted toward more qualitative approaches I came across Blanchard's book. I used it as a textbook for my class for several years now and I have found it to be a near perfect match to my goals. Some consider it wordy but I appreciate the motivation and insight the authors try to bring to the concepts. As a result it is not a good reference but as a textbook it is great. There are plenty of graphical tools. Quite suprising to me is how much the book illuminates DE's by simply analyzing the components of the DE, even before any solution is attempted. These features, along with some integrated applications, gives students much more of the "feel" for differential equations I have been looking for.

I used this book to brush up my sunken knowledge on differential equations together with a standard text offering a more conventional approach. Especially since I had no instructor around this book was exactly what I needed. The other book may be a more popular choice, but it really left out too many steps in the solution processes. I don't make my living in math and can understand that the verbal approach may be a waste of time for the professional, but I just loved this book. In addition, I would like to mention that a perspective that is based on first understanding, and then solving was very refreshing. Highly recommended.