This short and artfully written book was published after Hume's death. Hume did not wish to experience the controversy engendered by the arguments advanced in the book. It is likely as well that Hume was concerned also with offending some of the moderate Presbyterian clergy who were his personal friends and had been his partisans in other controversies. This book is primarily an attack on the idea that the exercise of reason and logic provides support for religion, and particularly that application of reason leads to strong evidence for the existence of a beneficient God. This line of thought had become particularly popular among liberal theologians in the first half of the 18th century and was a widely held notion among Enlightenment intellectuals across Europe and North America. This idea is still widely held today and can be seen in the writings of the so-called 'intelligent design' advocates of creationism. Hume's criticisms, then, are not only of historic interest but continue to have relevance to our contemporary lives.

The Dialogues are constructed as a 3 cornered argument between three friends. Demea, a man upholding revealed religion against the idea that reason provides support for the existence of God. Cleanthes, an advocate of natural religion. Philo, a skeptical reasoner who attacks the positions held by Demea and Cleanthes. For those who like Hume's sprightly 18th century style, this is a fun book to read. Hume artfully divides some of his strongest arguments between Cleanthes and Philo, and gives the Dialogues the real sense of a dispute among 3 intelligent friends. Philo is generally taken to represent Hume's positions but Cleanthes articulates some strong arguments and provides some of the best criticisms of Demea's fideism. Much of the book is devoted to attacking the argument from design, which Cleanthes attempts to defend against assaults from Philo and Demea. In many ways, the argument from design is the major idea of those supporting the natural religion approach to existence of God. Hume's critique is thorough and powerful. It even includes an anticipation of Darwin's idea's of selection, though the basis for Hume's critique is primarily epistemological. In the later parts of the book, Hume attacks also the comsological argument for the existence of God, though this discussion is relatively brief and a bit confusing. Hume's analysis is consistent broadly with much of his philosophical work. In many ways, his great theme was the limitations of reason, and this book is an example of his preoccupation with the relatively limited role of reason in establishing certain facts about the universe. He finishes with short criticisms of the idea that religion is needed for a stable and well ordered society and defends the usefullness of skeptical reasoning.

It is important to view the Dialogues as part of a critique of religion that Hume sustained in several works. His Natural History of Religion, the On Miracles section of the Enquiry Concerning Human Understacing, and other essays comprise a broad criticism of religion. Other pillars of religion, such as the existence of miracles and revelation, are criticized in his other work. While Hume denied being an atheist and was apparently disturbed by the dogmatic atheism of French philosophes he met in Paris, he was certainly not religous in any conventional sense.

This is a short and very readable book but the power of its arguments are totally out of proportion to its length.

I had a mental love affair with David Hume. I found myself intigued and captivated and frustrated all at once. And, in the end, there was something liberating and alienating. To believe or not to believe--that's something Hume leaves to the reader. Oh, by the way, technically, the sun doesn't rise, nor does it 'set' or fall. The earth spins around its axis--the side that is facing the sun is day; the side facing away from the sun is night. And yet, after reading David Hume, I might even doubt that explanation.

Actually, the rising sun example is often cited as something Hume was completely unsure about. (theoretically, of course) Hume was essentially unwilling to believe anything, be it materialistic or spiritualistic.

My son and I have enjoyed reading this book together since he was born. He loves finding Freckles on the page. The illustrations are great with bright colors that hold his attention. The story is classic and softly teaches an important lesson. It is the perfect book to share together.

What a great book. The message is very good for kids and adults- to be principle-centered! Freckles the puppy gets lost and then takes up company with some wild and mean dogs. Freckles hangs out with them and has a sense of belonging to the group until he realizes the mean and unjust things the dogs are doing to the other forest animals. He then must choose between remaining with the wild dog "family" (thereby ignoring his conscience) or take a stand for just principles, risking being cast out of the pack to be alone in the woods again. Freckles ends up listening to his conscience and doing the right thing, but is cast out of the pack. Although he has been rejected by his own species for standing up for what is right, Freckles is embraced by the other forest animals and ends up with more friends than he could ever imagine.

The illustration by David Stanley is totally amazing. I can stare at the pictures all day. The old rusty pickup truck riding down the country road with all the puppies bouncing in it is a rich and dynamic scene. When I stare at it, as when I stare at the other frames, I feel more like I am watching an IMAX movie than simply looking at a 2-dimensional page. The expressions and personalities of all the characters in the book are magnificently represented with clarity and color. It is a visual feast. I enjoy reading it to my two-year-old daughter but find myself lost in staring at each page far too long to keep her attention.

My son and I both have fun reading Freckles. Although at 14 months he doesn't understand the lessons (and there are numerous lessons to be learned), he really enjoys the illustrations and trying to pick out the different Wild Dog characters. We both enjoy trying to make the sounds associated with all the different characters. The author hints at subsequent stories, and we are anxiously awaiting Freckles' future adventures.

February 2003 - just back from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. I found the book helpful, accurate and comprehensive - exactly the qualities required in a travel guide.

I'm currently using this book to plan a Sep 2003 trip up to Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island & possibly the Bay of Fundy. Lonely Planet has to be my favorite series of travel books, and this edition is right on par with their other guides.

One goal of mine has been to stay in B&B's the whole time (I picture lots of intimate Atlantic oceanside places), and there is a good focus on these accommodations. Another increasing trend in the LP series has been to supplement with web addresses for more information. The author looks like they have gone to great lengths to provide an extraordinary number of links for accommodations, activities, visitor info and often, restaurants. Coverage of maps (including city) and suggested itineraries are two of my favorite aspects of Lonely Planet, and this guide has great ones. This book also doubles as a history primer for the area. Two easy-read examples within that I enjoyed included background on the New Brunswick-to-PEI bridge & the history of why Halifax gives a Christmas tree to Boston each year.

Overall, there is more information contained within than I could use while visiting the area. It's simply the best choice for visiting the Maritimes.

One last note, Lonely Planet also released a full guide on Quebec as well.

As the previous reviewer stated, this is a great guide for locals as well as visitors. The author combines some fine local history and stories with essential travel tips that will definitely point travellers in the right direction for an enjoyable vacation.

A new edition of this handbook is now available and it can be found by searching for "Moon Handbooks: South Pacific" on this site.

As president of Sea For Yourself Snorkeling Tours, it¹s my professional obligation to remain attentive to both the world¹s best snorkelingsites and the logistical infrastructure that facilitates our group visits. For thesepurposes, (as well as my personal travel) David Stanley¹s travel handbooks have been a valuable and trusted ongoing source of reliableinformation. For travel planning, it¹s critical to use reference material that is accurate, up-to-date, and complete. The South Pacific Handbook satisfies all these criteria, and more.I was especially interested in the description of coral reefs. David does a superb job condensing this complex biological system ­ revealing it¹s essential ecological ingredients in the context of how we can responsibly interact with the fish, coral, and resident human communities.David¹s book is filled with the practical (and accurate) nuts and Bolts information so essential for planning your trip to the South Pacific. The extensive section of general advice (currency, health, food, recreation, visas, etc.) is then followed by detailed regional descriptions of virtually every inhabited island group in the entire South Pacific, including evaluations of restaurants, accommodations, and transportation issues.If I had to pick a single book, either to use in planning my South Pacific Odyssey or to take with me on the journey, it would be David Stanley¹s South Pacific Handbook.

South Pacific Handbook Review ... By Garry Hawkins

If you're thinking of travelling to the South Pacific (and go you definitely should), then David Stanley's 'South Pacific Handbook' is THE travellers bible for the region. It's the only guidebook that covers every single inhabited island in the region in one single volume, yet at 908pp remains sufficiently comprehensive to give you all the background information you could ever possibly ask for.

My first odyssey to the South Pacific came in 1991, at the end of a round the world trip. While total war was raging in the Gulf, here was I, languishing at the Royal Hotel in the old Fijiian capital of Levuka. But what a place to languish! I'll let David Stanley describe the scene to you:

"For the full Somerset Maugham flavour, stay at the 15 room Royal Hotel... In the lounge, ceiling fans revolve around the rattan sofas and potted plants, and the fan- cooled rooms upstairs with private bath are pleasant, with much needed mosquito nets provided. At US$8/12/14 for single/double/triple the colonial atmosphere and impeccable service make it about the best value in Fiji.... Everybody loves this place."

Well, I can vouch for that! Meanwhile however, cruise missiles were performing flybys past the Baghdad Hilton, but outside the Royal Hotel it was merely raining cats and dogs. Well - it was the wet season you know! But while I sat soaking up the colonial ambience, I had plenty of time to delve into my trusty South Pacific Handbook.

I began to realise that were so many different places to go in the region. You may have heard of Western Samoa, Tahiti, Tonga or even the Cook Islands? But have you ever heard of Tuvalu, Tokelau, Niue or Futuna? No? Well not many people have but from Solomon Islands to Easter Island - you'll find them all in David Stanley's book.

Even if you never get to visit some of these far flung and exotic sounding names, you can learn an awful lot about this splendidly diverse region of different cultures and customs. Plate tectonics, Darwin's theory of atoll formation, the greenhouse effect, French nuclear testing, fauna and flora, economics, politics, conservation and the environment. I could go on....

Since my initial visit to Fiji, I've managed to visit Samoa, Tonga, Niue, Tahiti, Cook Islands and Tuvalu - and still there's more to see. I'd love to visit the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Wallis, Futuna, New Caledonia, Easter and Pitcairn Island - so many islands to visit and so little time (and money!) to do it with.

Next time I'm headed for the South Pacific, I'll be sure to take David Stanley's South Pacific Handbook with me. Why carry a multitude of travel guides for different islands, when you need only take the one?

Hosmer and Lemeshow point to the massive growth in applications of logistic regression over a ten year period from the time of publication of the first edition of their text. They found over 1000 articles that used logistic regression during that time frame. There also have been many software advances that make it easier to apply logistic regression. The authors do their computing mostly in STATA. But they also acquaint the reader with many other useful standard packages for applying logistic regression. They also provide a web site from the publisher where data sets can be found.

New topics include the use of exact methods in logistic regression, logistic models for multinomial, ordinal and multiple response data. Also included is the use of logistic regression in the analysis of complex survey sampling data and for the modeling of matched studies.

The book is intended for a graduate course in logistic regression requiring the student to be familiar with linear regression and contingency tables. Similar in spirit and objectives to the first edition, this text also maintains the clarity of thought and presentation that these authors have a history of providing.

This is an important update to the first edition and is worth having on the bookshelf in any biostatistics library. I have my own personal copy and I think many others would also benefit by having it as a reference.

This is an excellent beginning and intermediate text on logistic regression analysis. Avoids the thorny details, but provides a wealth of references for those who are interested.

Anyone who is serious about doing logistic regression analysis should have this book.

This is a very popular and well written text on logistic regression. The topic is very useful to biostatisticians. Hosmer and Lemeshow have taught some short course out of the text which have been well received. The authors are knowledgeable and thorough. The book is very much oriented toward real applications and does not require advanced mathematics.

This book provides a good, clear, concise explanation of Cox's proportional hazards models. For someone seeking a non-mathematical description this is a great guide. The original datasets from the text examples can even be downloaded and you can go through the same process yourself. Because of some mistakes in the text, I would recomend looking at other sources as well.

I enjoyed the authors' book on logistic regression analysis in 1989, and this book is just as good, or better, with many extremely practical suggestions on building regression models for survival data. Happily, the authors summarize, compare, and contrast several major texts on survival analysis which have appeared in the past 10 years. For example, they discuss different names used by different authors for score residuals. They present a helpful appendix on the counting process approach to survival analysis, which will make more advanced texts accessible to students; thus, anyone who wants to use survival analysis, at any level, should consult this book, even if he has already studied books by Miller, Lee, Collett, Fleming-Harington,Andersen, et al, etc. An unfortunate drawback to this book is that the first printing contains many careless errors, some of which may affect student learning: for example, the definition of a survival function is misstated. I recommend that you insist on the second or third printing when buying this book, and you will be quite satisfied.

Hosmer and Lemeshow have given us a clear, nontechnical introduction to using survival models. The book strikes a good balance between covering the basics and addressing the most recent, state-of-the-art techniques, including repeated events, frailty models, and others. They also do a good job of addressing practical issues, including estimation details and available software. While most of the examples are drawn from medicine and biostatistics, this book could also serve as a useful starting point for social and behavioral scientists interesting in learning the fundamentals of these models, as well as a useful reference for applied researchers.

This science fiction, fantasy and horror movie guide provides an excellent survey of the genre to fans who are avid movie-watchers: chapters provide capsule reviews of thousands of films, provide a rating system and guide to obscure and rare as well as mainstream titles, and include distribution and mail order information. Outstanding.

I own MANY film reference books, including many inclusive to horror and cult films. This is by far the best one I own. It gives extremely detailed entertaining descriptions of each of its ,many films. It has many hard to find titles. I was extremely impressed with this book and recommend it to everybody.

This book is a Genre fans dream! I happen to be one of those people who like Horror, Sci-fi, and Fantasy movies. I own several books on each subject. When I found this book in a used book store, I never imagined that I would find something that so perfectly matched my taste in movies. There are 5,614 reviews with intelligent descriptions behind each one. I take my copy to the video store with me! That way I know I'm not renting a total turkey. Some of the major pluses included in the book are: TV movie reviews, 1,709 cross references to secondary titles, direct-to-video reviews, and the fact that an estimated 30% of the titles listed in the book cannot be found in most major movie guides. The last fact is entirely true! I have also noticed that there are little if any errors in the reviews. Other books I have read , have many noticeable mistakes that tend to irk genre fans like myself. Try it out for yourself, this book has never done me wrong!

As so many of us look outside ourselves for ways of reaching the understanding and meaning to our lifes, David Feinstein and Stanley Krippner, provide us with a sacred journey through which we discover our inner self. A Mythic Path is a Psycho-spiritual journey through which self appreciation, respect and love is ultimately embraced. Each stage provides a path through which you reach this ultimate experience. It is a comprehensible program designed to help the layman and the professinal. As a spiritual counselor who experience this program first hand, I can attest it's validity not only in my life, but in my own personal practice as well. Thank you for your wisdom......

Mythic Path is a psychological inventory of personal myths that may no longer be of value. The authors have expanded their original book, Personal Mythology, to challenge the reader to participate in a mythic treaure hunt to uncover the origin of the mythology one is living. By following an easy step-by-step system of discovery some deeply-embedded patterns should be identified. This practical guide helps to acknowledge, heal and integrate new myths that should be helpful in reaching new goals in life. I would recommend this book to anyone who doesn't want to waste time living out a mythology imposed on them by their childhood or their culture.

A lucid, warm and transforming work, The Mythic Path is the kind of book one continues to carry around as a companion once finished reading it. The rituals of the 5-stage process provide a framwork for addressing one of the most important questions confronting contemporary humankind: How to find grounding and depth for one's soul and spirit in a world struggling to retain a sense of mythos and the sacred. The two authors have combined their individual expeiriences to create a work that is simple in its approach, while sublime in its impact. Stanley Krippner brings to the book years of experience in the study of shamanism and mythology, and David Feinstein combines philosophy, mythos and years of clinical work to offer a comprehensive program for change accessible and invigorating to both scholars and lay persons.

Stanley Changnon and his colleagues have written the best, and most comprehensive analysis of what really happened with the biggest climate event of the century, the 1997-1998 El Nino. What is unique about this book is that they carefully look at both the devastation that occured and the positive impacts from the mild winter -- fewer deaths from ice storms, more shopping when people went out in milder weather, less fuel oil. They also point out the places where the forecast worked, and where it had problems. As society gets more and more sensitive to weather events, we will need more thoughtful probing into how we have responded and how we will respond. This book sets the stage, and is written by experts who have analyzed other big weather events. I strongly recommend it.

Stanley Chagnon and his colleagues have written the best, and most comprehensive analysis of what really happened with the biggest climate event of the century, the 1997-1998 El Nino. What is unique about this book is that they carefully look at both the devastation that occured and the positive impacts from the mild winter -- fewer deaths from ice storms, more shopping when people went out in milder weather, less fuel oil. They also point out the places where the forecast worked, and where it had problems. As society gets more and more sensitive to weather events, we will need more thoughtful probing into how we have responded and how we will respond. This book sets the stage, and is written by experts who have analyzed other big weather events. I strongly recommend it.

I used this book recently in my travels to the South Pacific. Although alot of the prices are outdated(which is difficult to keep up with as travel books are concerned , 4 stars insted of 5)it still makes an excellent REFERENCE. I recommend this travel book over the Lonely Planet version.

This is by far the best South Pacific guide. Stanley has an engaging writing voice and it is clear that he feels very passionate about this special part of the world. You get the feeling that this book was actually written by a person, instead of by a committee (Lonely Planet). This book succeeds in being appropriate for a wide audience--from backpackers to honeymooners to yachties to scuba divers. Although the prices and some of the businesses are out-of-date (the book was published in 2000), it is still a great read, even if only for arm chair travellers.

This book is your bible to the South Pacific. If you have special (return)feelings about the South Pacific like we have, you must read this book. If you buy this book after your trip you will find out that every spot you have travelled to is described the way YOU would do it. Buy it before you travel and the South Pacific Handbook will guide you for the best holiday you have ever made. Thank you David Stanley!

Arthur Zeeuw and Jane Toredjo