This book was very disappointing but I should have known it would be. Walter Boyne finds it difficult, if not impossible to write negatively about aviation issues unless those issues involve threats to his beloved Air Force. He follows true to his nature in Beyond the Horizons: The Lockheed Story. I had hoped to find a book the equal to Flying High (the story of Boeing). Beyond the Horizons should have been a book that discussed the successes and failures of Lockheed in such a way that a reader could learn from them. I, at least, expected an honest analysis of the L-1011 fiasco but instead read that it was a great airplane and pilots loved it. This should have been a book about a business that manufactures airplanes not a book centered on the airplanes manufactured. Readers wanting to learn about Lockheed as a business should read The Skunk Works by Ben Rich. It provides an excellent view into the business (and politics) of aircraft manufacturing. Mr. Boyne's book is another of his many books glorifying the US Air Force and the industries that support and depend on it.

The author has sucessfully captured the exciting behind-the-scenes action that takes place during the mammoth effort to design and fabricate the world's most sophisticated aircraft. I highly recommend this historically accurate foray into the inner workings of one of our country's most successful aerospace giants.

The saga of America's leading aerospace corporation, its rise to technological excellence and financial success is to a large extent the story of how an extraordinarily gifted and at times overbearing aeronautical engineer helped to transform a meager airplane manufacturer into the world's most formidable air and space powerhouse. Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson joined Lockheed in the 1930s and immediately put his imprint on the company's products. He argued successfully to install a twin tail on the Electra airliner, thereby improving its stability. He continued infuencing designs at the company for the next forty years. The revolutionary World War II fighter, the P-38, the first operational American jet, the P-80, the high-flying spyplane, the U-2, and the ultra-fast reconnaissance platform, the SR-71, all emanated from the fertile mind of Kelly Johnson. Walter Boyne brings alive the life of this amazing engineer and the lives of the zealots who worked with Johnson in that legendary think tank/workshop known as the Lockheed Skunk Works. With the benefit of having known Johnson, Boyne brings a human touch to this fascinating story. We learn, for example, that Johnson laid down fourteen inviolable rules for his fiefdom that embodied his often repeated mantra: "Be quick, be quiet, be on time." The legacy of this design genius is to be found in the Skunk Works' output since Johnson's departure -- the incredible F-117A Stealth Fighter, the Air Force's next generation air dominance fighter, the F-22 Raptor, and the X-33, which is a prototype of the Venture Star spacecraft destined to replace the aging and costly Space Shuttle. In the 576 pages of this opus, Boyne superbly weaves Johnson's intriguing story into the mosaic of both the corporate history of Lockheed and the chronicle of twentieth century airpower. This masterful book provides the insight necessary to understand what made the Skunk Works and its parent organization the leading players in the aerospace industry. Boyne asserts that the people carrying on the work of Kelly Johnson aim beyond the horizons and we should be grateful for that. And we should also be grateful that a distinguished aviation historian like Walter Boyne has so accurately and comprehensively recorded such an important slice of aerospace development.

"Cobralingus" was my introduction to Noon's work...the processes he used to remix/process text are a bit "fuzzy" compared to the well documented algorithms used by the Oulipo writers...but his techniques yield some very nice pieces and have enticed me to check out his other work...

Best for fans on Noon's who like him not only for Vurt, but for the way he likes to play with language and music. A bit pretentious at first, it may take a while to appreciate it's beauty. He challenges conventional notions of literture, but who hasn't? Luckily, he starts with an idea that is still original which seems to be based on his own desire to explore the bounds of language.

This is an experiment...Cobralingus shows you behind the secret door where Noon recreates the modern novel. It is an instruction manual, a poetry book, an art book, a short story collection, and more all in one sleek designer package.

Remember, reading Jeff Noon makes you happy.

I read this book in three nights. I got very little sleep that week, but it was worth it. Mr. Schrager's depiction of life on the Chicago streets could only be told by somone who had been there as he had. I'm looking forward to anything else that he writes and I hope that he does it soon. Here's hoping that they can make this book into a movie, it would be dynamite.

The Code, by Daniel Schrager is a refreshing break from the usual "Hollywood" cop story.

The author paints a picture of the central character, Jake Harmon, in a way that the reader can easily identify with, and puts Harmon in a situation that is actually believable, as opposed to many "cop stories". It is also a nice change that the story takes place in Chicago as opposed to New York or Los Angeles, the usual stages for cop stories....

While The Code is a work of fiction, it is so realistic that I got the feeling that it could easily inserted a disclaimer stating, "The names have been changed to protect the guilty" !!

It is no surprise that the author is an ex-police officer due to the intense insight he has with "The Code"..... the unwritten law that all big city cops must subscribe to. It is apparent that the author has lived what he is writing about.

As with books written by Joe Wambaugh, this novel's charm is that it's realistic yet exciting plot enables the reader to easily identify with the storyline, totally eliminating any room for boredom. There isn't a "sleeper" page in the book !!

I really think that The Code would make an excellent two-night mini-series, and I look forward to more work by this author.

Just to learn the Code of conduct big city cops live and die by is worth the read, but Schrager goes way beyond that. He entertains the hell out of the reader, keeps those pages turning, in short entertains, and what could be better than that?

Joe Gores does a tremendous job in "Cons, Scams & Grifts" of keeping the novel under control, a highly commendable achievement considering that the book has dozens of characters who play significant roles in the plot, as well as probably over a dozen separate storylines, most of which are interrelated in some way. The key storylines in the novel that all the others are spun off from are the repossession of 27 classic cars from a dealership who does everything it can to hide them, a Gypsy woman's apparent murder of her husband in Los Angeles, and the battle between an Italian zoo curator and a California millionaire for a rare orangutan

I understand that this novel is a sequel of sorts to "32 Cadillac's", which I've never read, using many of the same characters. To Gores' credit, he gives you enough backhistory so that those of us who haven't read "32 Cadillac's" are able to read "Cons, Scams & Grifts" without feeling lost. I would say about 90-95% of the time Gores was successful in keeping all of the various characters and storylines clear, and there really was only a handful of times when the various intersecting plots and characters got a bit fuzzy.

One of the strongest aspects of "Cons, Scams & Grifts" is the fact that Gores really was a private detective and repo man. Unlike many detective novels that pretty much require that you leave you brain and any sense of logic or reality at the door in order to enjoy them, the believability quotient seemed to me to be much higher in this novel than in similar books. I also enjoyed the obviously well researched insight into modern gypsy culture, which I really didn't know anything about previously. Half the fun of the book for me was reading a scene that I figured was being played straight, and then realizing later I had been conned myself (particularly the scenes with the overeager jewelery salesman whose free-spending customer and rare gem supplier are not exactly who they seem to be). Also, having grown up in the San Francisco Bay Area it was fun to see many familiar locations appear in the novel.

A roller coaster of a novel, dealing with a passel of repo men and women and a whole tribe of gypsies. A hilarious story of magnificent scams and cons. An in depth study on the repossession of cars for a bank that holds the defaulted loans. Of course, the two intertwine and the results are beautiful.

Unfortunately, the author chose to write in very short chapters with constantly changing scenery. Add to that the ever changing names, and the result can become rather confusing.

This book was a little difficult to read because of all the different stories going on at once, but if you can get past that and I did, it is a fun read. This is the latest in Joe Gores Series with the DKA Repossessors. I had not read the previous books by Mr. Gores but will probably go back and start from the beginning. I was not lost in this book because I didn't read the rest of the series though. Each of the agents from the Agency have a story as well as the main murder plot. It is definitely a good guy, bad guy book. It also portrays the Gypsy way of life pretty well. The characters definitely come to life for you.

This book tries to cover the subject area of fuzzy systems, starting at the origins and working forward. I did enjoy the beginning and the writing style made me keep reading even when the subject matter was thin but towards the end of the book I was floundering. I came away with a desire to learn more about fuzzy systems and a good idea as to what are their concepts and limitations. I think this book could have used another 10 years of subject matter to fill the pages though.

This book describes the players and the concepts behind fuzzy logic but does not give you the math and algorithms to implement your own fuzzy logic applications. More of a general interest book than a book for a software developer who wants to know the nuts and bolts behind fuzzy logic.

'Fuzzy Logic: A Revolutionary Computer Technology that is changing our world', a book by Daniel McNeill and Paul Freiberger, is all about the history and philosophy of fuzzy logic. This book was written nearly a decade from now and the main body consists of 275 pages of text (pp. 9 to 283). It took me 2 weeks to finish reading this book since I underlined important terms, concepts, and names of the people who contributed to the development of fuzzy logic. Without underlining, I think anyone can read this book in less than a week. The book has the following advantages and disadvantages:
Advantages:
1. It has quotations from famous people at the beginning of each chapter.
2. It is comprehensive.
3. It has been a major source of reference of most websites on fuzzy logic.
4. It is lightweight and measures approximately 7' x 5' inches.
Disadvantages:
1. It contains only a few diagrams.
2. It is monochromatic (lacks color).
3. It is generally non-technical.
I understand its predominantly non-technical approach (3rd disadvantage) because I assumed that there has been a lack of English technical references for fuzzy logic in the early 90's. Therefore, these are my comments/suggestions:
Comments/Suggestions:
1. I suggest that the authors revise the book to include 2 parts:
a. Fuzzy Logic: History and Philosophy
b. Fuzzy Logic: Concepts and Applications
2. The revised version should include more mathematical diagrams/models, sample problems with solutions, and exercises with odd-numbered solutions.
3. The revised version should include technical references such as 'Heaven in a Chip: Fuzzy Visions of Society and Science in the Digital Age' by Bart Kosko, 'Learning and Soft Computing: Support Vector Machines, Neural Networks, and Fuzzy Logic Models' by Vojislav Kecman, 'Genetic Fuzzy Systems: Evolutionary Tuning and Learning of Fuzzy Knowledge Bases' by Oscar Cordon, 'Fuzzy Engineering' by Bart Kosko, and Fuzzy Logic and Neuro Fuzzy Applications Explained' by Constantin Von Altrock.
4. The revised version should include sample applications with simulation using free downloadable fuzzy logic software/program from the internet such as FuzzyLib 2.0 and Simple Inference Engine 1.0 which are currently both available...

While well written and easy to follow, Farber and Sherry's book fails to provide their audience with an accurate picture of Critical Race Theory (CRT or "radical multiculturalism," as coined by the authors). They begin by only citing short conclusory statements made by CRT scholars and the authors never explore the reasoning behind the CRT scholars' conclusions. After curiously leaving this information out of their book, the authors then attack CRT, claiming it is based on story telling, as opposed to legal reasoning. CRT is based on logical premises and reasoning, Farber and Sherry just fail to acknowledge it. Instead of critically engaging and challenging the authenticity of CRT- they merely dismiss it as anti-Semitic, irrational, and emotionally charged. The authors also neglect to explore other plausible explanations for the success of Asians or Jews, that is not anti-Semitic or anti-Asian in nature.

For anyone interested in the topic, it is crucial that you consult with Professor Deborah Malamud's response to the assertion that CRT is inherently anti-Semitic (Please see "The Jew Taboo," 59 Ohio St.L.J. 915). Another review of Farber and Sherry worth reading is by Professor Beverly Horsburgh (Please see "The Myth of a Model Minority: The Transformation of Knowledge into Power," 10 UCLA Women's L.J. 165).

While this book provided a valuable insight to the psychology and motives of the multiculturalist left, a good deal of its content was tied up in polemics. It gives a clear image of the effects and sources of the current attack on reality that has emerged from university philosophy departments and proceeds to infiltrate our legal system like a subtle swamp monster. For the reader who is not familiar with the origins of multiculturalism, it provides a sound history and family tree for the movement.

Much of the book is involved in critiquing the ideas of racial and feminist activists and the implications multiculturalism has for American individualism. Particular attention is paid to its implications regarding racism towards minorities who have been successful in America, such as Asians and Jews. On the whole, a good criticism of a dangerous trend, but lacking in real cohesiveness and counterargument.

With a clarity and unpretentious use of language, with thoughtful supply of definitions, and the presentation of a methodical and structured argument Farber and Sherry take on the obscurantism and pretentious polemics of post-modern "scholarship". While their arguments and marshalling of facts are impressive, their style and form is also exemplary of the best in Western enlightened tradition. Very strongly recommended.

Fast paced and very realistic. This is not a book to lightly skim through. There are no wasted words; all details play an intricate part of the story and Harry Stant's character. This would be a great movie for Harrison Ford!

Mr. North definitely has a talent. I hope he graces us with another book in the near future.

Found "dead stick" to be very entertaining and fast paced. Harry Stant is a unlikely and likeable hero. I purchased two copies for the library and it is always out. The way North describes his characters, no physical decriptions but rather into there minds, allows the reader to place him or herself in any role. I would recommend this book to any Cussler, Ludlum or Clancy fan. Nice work Mr. North. Looking forward to your next one.

Dead Stick landing was a fun and entertaining read. If you are a pilot, or ever wanted to be one, read this. An enjoyable action story with lots of built in humor.

This book is a waste of good wood. It consists of quotes from the works of various kabbalists without any explanation as to why the author decided to include those quotes. But worse than that -- the publisher decided to put one quote to a page. This is fine with the long quotes but the short quotes waste paper. The only reason I rated this a two rather than a one is that I finished reading it -- which really wasn't much of a chore, even though I was intensely disappointed.

The book Essential Kabbalah, compiled by Daniel Matt, is a wonderful basic introduction to a very mysterious and often overlooked mystical practice. So often in popular (and even educated) opinion, Judaism of old was considered legalistic and pedantic; however, the Kabbalistic practices introduced here helped to keep alive a true tradition of spirituality through Judaism (more heavily influencing Sephardic Judaism than others).

According to Prof. Lawrence Fine (one of my professors when he and I were at Indiana University): 'Kabbalah is a mystical tradition filled with radiance, vitality, and spiritual depth. [In Matt's book] we catch a glimpse of the sparks of diving life about which the kabbalists speak.'

'Those who persevere in this wisdom find that when they ponder these teachings many times, knowledge grows within them--an increase of essence. The search always leads to something new.'

Kabbalah has often been a secret, or restricted, knowledge. Some have likened it to a gnostic framework. Some kabbalists would not teach, or indeed even discuss, kabbalistic knowledge and practice with anyone under forty years of age.

'Other requirements included high moral standards, prior rabbinic learning, being married, and mental and emotional stability. The point is not to keep people away from Kabbalah, but to protect them.'

The tendency for people to get lost in spirituality, essentially to get lost in the vastness of God to be found deep within themselves, has been noted in almost every spirituality of maturity throughout history. And many has been the false prophet who entices the unwary and uninitiated into mystical territory only to abandon them there.

The similarity of some practice of Kabbalah and other mystical traditions can be seen in this passage on mental attachment:

'In meditation, everything depends on thought. If your thought becomes attached to any created thing--even something unseen or spiritual, higher than any earthly creature, it is as if you were bowing down to an idol on your hands and knees.'

Kabbalistic practices have not been restricted to Jewish practitioners, either (and I'm not talking about Madonna's recent excursion into the territory). Italian humanist Mirandola found great love for the Latin translation of Kabbalah during the Renaissance, and laid a foundation for a 'Christian' kabbalistic literature, expanded by Johannes Reuchlin and Knorr von Rosenroth (who in turn influenced the likes of Leibniz, Lessing, Swedenborg, and Blake).

Kabbalah, translated from Hebrew, means 'receiving' or 'that which is received'. Kabbalah combines philosophical principles and divine instructions, heavily influenced by Talmud and Torah, infused with a heavy dose of feminine-God imagery, to explore the mysteries of human relationship with God as both father and mother, Lord and lover. There is the tradition that 'Kabbalah conveys our original nature: the unbounded awareness of Adam and Eve.'

Around 1280, Moses de Leon of Spain began circulating literature, based on earlier uncompiled teachings, that merged with other materials into the Zohar, the book of radiance, now considered the canonical text of kabbalistic literature. The Zohar concentrates on the aspects of God in personal naming and attribute (a God-with-us) and the Ein Sof, the endless or infinite (a transcendent God). The Ein Sof incorporates the negative theology of Maimonides:

'The description of God by means of negations is the correct description--a description that is not affected by an indulgence in facile language....With every increase in the negations regarding God, you come nearer to the apprehensions of God.'

Kabbalah heavily influenced Hasidism, an eighteenth century Jewish revivalist movement. Imagery of sparks and fire are prominent in Hasidic teaching and lore; this comes often from kabbalistic texts.

Most of the passages in Matt's book are from the Zohar, translated anew by Matt.

Next to Hinduism, I've found a comprehension of Kabbalah's message to be quite the challenge.

Finally in Matt's work we have an explanation of Jewish mysticism that MAKES SENSE!

I have a Playstation. This book is pretty much useless to me. The grey-scale maps have very poor detail for one thing. For another, anything having to do with the Playstation version is treated as an exception. I had really hoped for lovely, detatiled maps to help me through the various topological levels in the game, but this book didn't provide that. The walk-throughs appear to have been written with the N64 version in mind. It was a waste of my money.

If you are purchasing this version thinking that it will help you beat any version other than the Nintendo 64 version, you will be disappointed. In addition, you'd better have excellent close-up vision to make sense of the small illustrations. Check this book out at a brick-&-morter store BEFORE you order it here to confirm that it's worth you hard earned sheckles.

this is one of the very best guides for gaunlets legends it says for n64 and psx but its better to get the specific guide for each system anyway it tells you items strategy's for bosses what levels you learn techniques and much much more I think this is one of the best strategy guides EVER