I have read many translations of Patanjali now. These interpretations in some instances stray far from the sutra meaning. In other instances, the cross references with Christian and Biblical references may help those not familiar with things Eastern. There is no reference to the original Sanskrit words and roots that I find essential in understanding the meanings. I believe that this is a good first book for those who have little exposure to Indian scripture. I would hope people would find their interest piqued enough by this book to go deeper.

I give this book a TEN because it has aided me in my own spiritual journey. It is amazing how the mind works. Dr. Condron's book gives incredible insight to the cause and effect actions of the mind. I didn't realize all that unfolds as I practice concentration and meditation. It's like opening a door to paradise. Greg Hoeflicker

as an environmentalist (read: life-long tree hugger), i picked up this book with the hopes of finding some new information. this book served more as an overview of past environmentalist writings than a display of original thought. i'd recommend it as a starting point for environmental research, but if you're already knowledgable in the field, this probaby isn't the book for you.

It would be a mistake to think of this book as a primer to a sort of generic "environmentalism". Coleman's book does have a strong ecological focus, but it's really an introduction to the ideas of the global Green movement, with a particular emphasis on how the Greens' radical democracy has strong roots in the American revolutionary tradition. I strongly reccommend this book for anyone, but it will be of particular interest to those interested in the aspects of the Green movement other than environmentalism, people with a strong interest in confederalism or other populist democracy, and even ideological conservatives who are curious about the Greens.

This is a textbook to read only if required for a class, and even then you might suggest your instructor consider using another text. Very generalized, rather dry, and often unclear work, at times verging towards being obscure and confusing, which I assume is due to either poor technical editing, or a general inability on the part of the authors to express their knowledge in print. The chapter explaining the earth's revolution and rotation in particular seems unnecessarily vague and unhelpful, and the book in general is filled with facts with little supporting explication as to the whys and wherefores of the information being provided.

If you are looking for a book that will help you to understand the principles of physical geography, this is not it. Must wonder whether my professor has recently even read this current edition. . .

I read this book while my son was using it for a Physical Geography class at a local community college. I have been a flight instructor for 25 years, and this book actually clarified a lot of the weather and geography facts that I have been teaching for years. I wish I had had this text 20 years ago to clarify these terms and theories. I heartily recommend this book to anyone interested in learning physical geography.

A great book for students studying the Civil War (like myself). Gives amazing insight to the lives of people during the Reconstrucion era after the war. Pages of great information about soldiers' lives, homes, churches, schools, rites of passage, working life, daily woes, and enjoying life in the late 19th century. However, the info somewhat dry, and gets a little tedious at times, but the amount of details and great facts evens it out a bit.

This broad-ranging text covers daily life, customs, and technology in a variety of American settings during the Civil War and post-war periods. Inevitably, it doesn't give a whole lot of detail on each topic, but this is a very good place for general readers to start. The descriptions of farm life are particularly detailed and helpful. One complaint I do have is that the author does not footnote his quotes from primary sources, making it impossible to follow a reference up. Like most histories of daily life, this volume is short on information about mentalities and beliefs. Also, probably deliberately, it contains little information on political events and almost none on events in the South during Reconstruction. The effects of the Civil War on daily life and thought get rather short shrift. Nevertheless, this book does cover a lot of information and does so in a clear, useful fashion.

Sperber wants to make anthropology and psychology partners in the construction of a theory of culture centered on 'the epidemiology of beliefs'. Epidemiology examines the factors determining the frequency and distribution of diseases in a population. Similarly, the aspiring culturology will map the frequency and distribution of beliefs in a population.

The choice of epidemiology as the model science seems to be based on nothing more than the insinuations of English idiom. Idiom likens the spread of ideas to contagion. We say that ideas, moods, personalities, and fads are infectious. Rumor and disaffection spread like fevers through the body politic. Cheerfulness is contagious-smile and the world smiles with you. But usage provides no clue to causality. It is equally content with mechanical metaphors, such as the 'band wagon effect' and the 'climate of opinion', while outbreaks of frenzy, mania or hysteria are likened to floods, cyclones and wild fire. Idioms are heedless of the difference between plague and weather as transmission mechanisms. Oddly for an anthropologist, Sperber takes no notice of these clues to how the natives perceive thought transmission. An assessment must be made if we are to avoid confounding 'good enough' idiomatic analogies with causal mechanisms.

My suspicion that epidemiology is a red herring deepened on reading Sperber's account of the new culturology. On pages 109 and 112 he introduces graphs representing the spread and transformation of beliefs under the influence of 'attractors'. Attractors are characterized in two ways. In one statement, an attractor is 'an abstract, statistical concept, like a mutation rate or a transformation probability' (p. 111). Not much is said about it. A cultural attractor, however, is a specific practice or model. Manners, rituals, architectural styles, and resource-rich environments illustrate. Sperber has more to say about cultural attractors. A piece of culture is likely to become an attractor to the extent that it is the shortest distance between an initial condition and a beneficial outcome. This concept is usually called 'optimality', but the author calls it the 'effect-effort balance', where the 'processing of any given piece of information determines its degree of relevance' because behavior tends toward actions in which 'the intended effect can be achieved at minimal cost' (p. 114). Many attractors are unique to individuals; others, as gene-linked algorithms, cut deep channels through all populations, e.g., critical learning times and courtship strategies. The stability of cultural practices, he advises, is due to the fact that they are 'attracted' to these natural psychological channels and their presumed neural or genetic substrates.

Sperber provides a three page exposition meant to illustrate the difference between replication and transformation, and the stable combination of replication and transformation processes in a population. The combinatorial space is represented by a cellular matrix. He assigns cell types in some arbitrary quantity, and combinatorial possibilities to each type. The matrix now describes a combinatorial state space. An engine is needed to activate cell 'growth'. Sperber doesn't say what the engine is, but once it starts, the initial random distribution of cells in the matrix begins to alter. With each generation (or turn of the engine's wheel), the distribution of cell types changes. Patterns emerge as iterations continue; eventually we see patterns aggregating around two attractors. What is happening here? Sperber's matrix reminded me of cellular automata, the discovery by John Conway that led to nonlinear interpretations of game theory. Cellular automata with simple combinatorial instructions programmed into computer graphics are capable of remarkable behavior. Some instructions yield homogeneity, some express fractal self-similarity, and still others cross the boundary between stability and chaos to bifurcate into ramified local structures in the basins of chaotic attractors. The engines of these transformations are recursive nonlinear equations. Could this be the inspiration of attraction theory? In footnote 34, p. 158 he writes: 'Sophisticated notions of attractors . . . have been developed in complex systems dynamics [aka nonlinear theory, chaos theory, self-organization theory, fractals theory], and may well turn out to be of future use in modelling cultural evolution, but a very elementary notion of an attractor will do for the present purpose'. Oh dear! So much for 'science'!

If Sperber's effort to raise a new science doesn't come off, does he present some concrete insights on the transmission of thought? I'm afraid the answer is No, at least for me. I found no discussion of recognized types of transmission-panics, crazes, cults, sports mania, medical scares, propaganda, advertising, mobbing, and the like. As for identifying the transmission microprocesses, his message is confused. Cultural germ theorists like Richard Dawkins don't identify the somatic process corresponding to infectious disease. Sperber has an alternative cognitivist position: he proposes that inferences mediate cognitive processing. But what do inferences operate on? On sensorimotor information. Many inferences are already 'in' the senses. Here is the clue to the fugitive microprocesses obscured by epidemiology. The nonmetaphorical term is 'communication'. Communication isn't pathogenic and medical models aren't relevant.

It seems to me that Sperber's culturology doesn't really get off the ground.

Hiram Caton Griffith University

Simply brilliant; Dan Sperber brings his realist view to an area which has previously been explained away with mystic, relativistic stances. Recommended reading for all cultural studies students

I am a fellowship-trained interventional pain management physician, and I purchased this book with high hopes after reading the first review and the editorial summary. I received it, and promptly returned it. It really falls short in my opinion. The positioning pictures uses three pictures that really add very little to the basic knowledge of positioning the fluoroscopy unit. It does not make the effort to explain nuances of using the C-arm to open up the facet joints, etc. The pictures of the blocks performed show only the final placement of the needle, without any guidance on how to get it there, which is what is really needed in a text such as this. Furthermore, the image quality is remarkably poor in some of the shots. I think anyone interested in a guide on using fluoroscopy for pain management is better off waiting for Prithvi Raj's book, which is due in fall, 2002. His book on Pain Management is excellent and I expect nothing less with his upcoming book, which I have pre-ordered.

We have been using this amazing, comprehensive manual in our pain practice for 4 months. The time that is saved by ustilizing the author's concise explainations of correct patient and flouroscope positioning has cut out time per procedure down and increased the quality of images 3-fold.

Included, are flouro images of each simple and complex procedure performed.

I highly recommend this manual to any radiologic technologist, interventional pain management physician, orthopedist, neurosurgeon and physical medicine and rehabilitation physician.

Radiology departments everywhere should have at least one copy for those technologists who are asked to participate in any injection or implantation procedure.

The cost of this easy-to-use book is paid for in a few days of using it!

It strikes me that there are two kinds of people who might get this book; fans of Gil Kane who know a lot about his work, and fans of Gil Kane who don't. I fall into the latter category, but I suspect that both groups would be dissatisfied.

Basically, this reads more like a biography of Gil Kane than an analysis of his work. And that's what it is: a biography. The specifics of his work are only discussed in captions next to the pictures, usually consisting of statements to the effect of "This panel is an obvious demonstration of his unusual use of perspective."

Um. I'll take your word for it.

See, I don't have a background in art; I recognize that an image is interesting, but often only if it's pointed out to me, and usually I don't have the vocabulary to express my thoughts, which I was hoping this book could help me with. I'm sure what's unique about the image IS obvious to those who have the background I don't, but I doubt those people would gain much satisfaction from the book, unless they enjoyed nodding in sage agreement and admiration. Unfortunately, I don't feel like it had much to offer those of us without that background, either.

As a biography, then, it is cursory at best. As a book of art analysis, there's simply nothing there.

Occasionally the author's adulation grows a tad wearisome as well; I mean, I know you like the guy, since you wrote the book, and I like the guy, since I bought it; so everybody likes the guy, right? We don't need to keep reinforcing the fact. EXPLAIN to me what you like so much about his work instead of continually stating that you do.

Oh, and just a tiny (and probably unfair) pet peeve of mine; why is it that every serious book of comics criticism has to open with an apology, and a long, defensive explanation of how comics are for more than just kids? Maybe if we stop being so defensive about it, people will stop being so narrow. I dunno.

So, this might be a nice coffee-table collection of Gil Kane's art, if you can afford it. Oh, and the interview at the back was great. Gil Kane was a surprisingly articulate man about his work and the times that shaped it. The writer speaks of having spent the last weeks of Kane's life recording interviews with him; why, oh, why couldn't we have seen more of those?

This is an incredible book that is well worth its price. Herman has produced the only book to date about one of the premier comic artists of the Silver and Bronze ages, and provides both a loving tribute and a thoughtful analysis of Kane's work and influence on sequential art. The book is lavishly and profusely illustrated with examples of Kane's artwork, reproduced from both original artwork and the comics themselves. Herman doesn't just tell readers--he SHOWS us why Kane was one of the greatst illustrators ever to work in the comic book industry, particulary when it came to a complete understanding of dynamic anatomy and perspective. If you're a fan of Kane, any of the characters he worked on (from Green Lantern to the Amazing Spider-Man), Silver Age comics, or the comic art medium in general, you HAVE to have this book on your book shelf. I have no doubt that it's going to stand as the definitive book on the late, great Gil Kane.

One can only hope that Herman or someone of his caliber will undertake similar ventures about those comic legends who so far have not had books written about them , such as Steve Ditko, Gene Colan, Will Eisner, Lou Fine, and so on...

Probably the first thing I would point out is the book was first published in 1996. Accordingly many of the photographs may have been superceded by more recent shots from Hubble, and recent developments with the telescope are not covered. That aside, I found this book an interesting read. Of particular interest is the coverage of the early days of the telescope and the scandal over the faulty optics. The comparative before and after photographs of the faulty and corrected optics are also fascinating. There are a large number of photographs in the book which really lends itself well to sitting on the coffee table and occassional viewing. The book is plain black hardcover with a glossy dustjacket. It is set in landscape view and I'm not quite sure what it is but the layout of the book doesn't really gel together that well. I would recommend prospective purchasers check out the book in a library before purchasing to see if it meets their requirements. This book would have received a higher rating in 1996, but it is showing its age now. Check it out first.

I am fortunate enough to have supported the Hubble Space Telescope (helping with testing the ground system at the Goddard Space Flight Center), so I bring an extra level of interest to this book.

Which book provides a detailed background on HST, from the first notions of a telescope in space through the problems with the mirror and its resolution. It then goes into the astronomy that has been and is being done with the spacecraft, providing copious and interesting detail along with the breathtaking photographs that HST has become famous for.

The result is both a great coffee-table book (for the photographs) and a worthwhile overview of current astronomy and what's being investigated. Recommended.

I hoped this book would offer a solid definition of "spirituality" and an attempt to survey a difficult area, already plagued by too many idiosyncratic definitions and approaches. This is one more; the author severs "psyche" from "spirit," then has trouble placing Jung and Grof and many others clearly writing about "both," or rather, refusing to make this separation. A more basic problem for scholars in religion, psychology and cultural studies is the author's wanting to have his cake- an intrinsic, essential, trans-cultural core of "spirituality" that is more primordial than any religion - and eat it too, by incorporating specific cultural/religious constructs into his definition of the above. Frustrating, and the charts and diagrams to not help.

Spirituality has recently become an acceptable topic of popular discussion outside of religious circles -- in psychology, medicine, nursing, social work, education, politics, philosophy. Yet most discussions of spirituality are loose and merely suggestive. Moreover, the frequent implication of God and differing religions complicates and befuddles this already difficult topic. My book sorts out these issues.

The basic argument is that spirituality is a human thing, grounded in the very make-up of the human being. To be sure, most spirituality expresses itself through religious belief and pious practice. Still, in essence, spirituality can be treated apart from religion and theology -- and it ought to be, if a coherent and accurate understanding of spirituality is the goal. And this is the goal of my book. This is also what our contemporary world needs.

Part I teases apart the theological and the human facets of the matter and, bracketing the theological temporarily, focuses attention on the human. Part II explains what human spirit is and how its unbounded unfolding grounds spirituality. Part III elaborates human psyche and shows how, for better or worse, psychological issues affect the functioning of the human spirit. And Part IV says what characterizes fully healthy humanity -- on-going personal integration that is ever respectful of the self-transcending dynamism of the human spirit.

A discussion of sexuality summarizes the book. This discussion provides an extended example of what spiritual integration would actually mean and also indicates what difference it would make to bring God back into the picture.

Such an approach calls the religions to open their eyes to what they all share in common and to stop contributing, through interdenominational bickering, to the fragmentation of the human family. Such an approach calls social science to take seriously the universal human realities that it has for too long ignored as "religious." And such an approach calls contemporary communities and nations to attend to the spiritual issues that undergird any human society, whether religious or secular.

As many readers of this title I was looking for interesting, creative, innovative use of loft space. The piece seems complete in its coverage of origin and early treatment. Lofts in several international urban settings are described and pictured. Floor plans for a representative number are presented at the conclusion. By now it has become fairly dated. Present day materials and treatments clearly be an important addition. Surely there has been great progress in the 12 years since the book was released. Secondly, "adventurous" lofts were not prevalent. A few several portrayals were bland and unexciting. However, the work seems to be one of the few available resources for those interested in the development of loft space.

My dream is to live in a Loft. And this book helped me get started on my research. I have already labeled and marked my favorite floor plans and styles. I am currently looking for a book that contains more information about costs and maintenance of lofts. Otherwise it's a great book to get an idea of lofts, what styles you may like and the history of lofts.