The book is anything but teaching how to use matlab. Instead, the book is simply a collection of signals and systems problem set. And answers to questions are NOT given in the book. Nor is there any solved examples. Good job!

Each Section has a MatLab command it starts with. Explains the command, then puts it to use. A very good Sig and Sys MatLab book.

Nice idea, Alexander Technique complements many spiritual systems by helping one become conscious of the body and its use.

The book starts well with a broad overview of the benefits of the A.T., but degenerates into what feels like a criticism of other (competitive?) systems such as meditation or Hatha Yoga.

There is a good book to be written on this subject, but A.T. is not of itself a spiritual technique. It is needs to be closely allied with a genuine doctrinal system for that. This book seems to confuse that which might remove blockages with that which feeds our growth.

This is a thought provoking, generous and reasoned work - but not an easy book to read. McGowan candidly warns, in the introduction, that scintillating statements and flowing lines are not his forte. However, the problem for all those who choose to write about the Alexander Technique (or Contructive Awareness - as McGowan prefers to call it ) is that of conveying the significance in words of something that is only fundamentally understood when experienced - through hands on work with a competent teacher.

Speaking from my own experience - the slow process of re-learning how to use my body using the fundamental principles discovered by F.M. Alexander continues to facilitate my own personal growth in the spheres of body, mind and spirit - and McGowan's book is important for anyone who is undertaking training to be a teacher purely because it addresses the technique from a wider spiritual perspective rather than from the usual "health / self improvement" angle that most secondary "introductory" texts provide.

Each chapter which touches on key Alexander Technique teachings/ discoveries - whether it be the power of habit , the crucial place that inhibition and direction play in freeing us from harmful misuse or the importance of breathing and the need for accurate sensory appreciation - is un-obtrusively underpinned by McGowan's belief in mentalism - and the final chapter and the epilogue provide further information about the philosophy and work of Paul Brunton.

The chapters about Meditation and Hatha Yoga are not criticisms - the balanced and pragmatic suggestions offered to ensure that the body is treated with respect and the plea not to relegate it to an inferior position in the search for higher states of mind and spirit have the mark of personal experience - McGowan, as an experienced teacher of Alexander Technique, is not interested in defamation of any other spiritual path. And it is only the careless reader who might think him so.

Recommended for the seeker with an open mind with the patience to return to a text that discusses difficult ideas - definitely not for inveterate "end-gainers"!

Be careful - though this is an entertaining read, several historical anecdotes in this book are based on folklore rather than actual documented facts. I would recommend "A Road through the Wilderness" by William C. Davis for a factually accurate history of the Trace instead of this book, which at times reads like a dime novel.

For anyone who likes Southern history, particulary history of the Natchez Trace, this book is a must. The book is full of information about the use and /or settling of the land around the Natchez Trace. The book, however, is often hard to follow since it contains so much information and various names of settlers and infamous historical figures that used the Trace. Once you begin to read it, you become mesmerized and will find it hard to put down.

I like Tintin so I thought this might be an interesting gift for some young friends of mine. Unfortunately, the Tintin characters that decorate here and there have nothing to do with the text. Then on top of that, the book is shallow and ignorant of it's topic. It's treatment of Islam is particularly poor. Islamic law is Sharia, not Charia. It uses stereotypes of 'fundamentalists' and 'holy war' that would offend many Muslims. Muslims don't worship some strange god called Allah. Allah is the Arabic name for God, the same as the God of Moses and Jesus. It also said that all the idols in Mecca were destroyed but the black stone, as though the black stone is an idol of sorts, which is incorrect. My young friends are Muslim so I couldn't give them such a book and for religious understanding, I wouldn't recommend it for anyone else.

as usual it is a classic tintin! a must read

Edited by William O. Einwechter and containing chapters by some of the Christian Right's most unstable extremists, Explicitly Christian Politics is nauseating. Attempting to deny what Christ said about his kingdom not being of this world, these devils would substitute Christ's heavenly kingdom for their own dictatorship.

The book's premise is straightforward: Jesus Christ is both Creator and King, and therefore all of life, both private and public, is subject to the author's interpretation. That is, the authors are pretending to be god. The implications of this should be obvious, but alas are not: today 1/2 of the U.S. Senate would sleep soundly at if the reigns of goverment were turned over to Pat Robertson- or, e.g., if John Ashcroft were to become attorney general.

Every ideology is inherently hubris, since it inevitably makes assumptions concerning creation and the nature of reality and the source and meaning of right and wrong.

Hopefully Americans will learn of the diabolical nature of these Reconstructionist theocrats before it's too late.

Edited by William O. Einwechter and containing chapters by some of the Christian Right's most distinguished thinkers, Explicitly Christian Politics is an impressive read. Attempting what is today unheard of -- an approach not only to political issues but also political theory that is rooted entirely in Christian thought -- it succeeds in making its case in a consistently scholarly fashion that is still light enough to entertain and to reach virtually any lay reader.

The book's premise is straightforward: Jesus Christ is both Creator and King, and therefore all of life, both private and public, is subject to His rule. The implications of this should be obvious, but alas are not: modern society becomes hysterical at the very thought of anything which might, in modern terms, "mix politics with religion." Of course this hysteria is nonsense. Every ideology is inherently religious, since it inevitably makes assumptions concerning creation and the nature of reality and the source and meaning of right and wrong. But the Christian religion and its trappings are out of vogue in this century, while the cults of the all-powerful state and the relativistic individual reign supreme, and it should surprise no one that the acolytes of the modern polytheism should seek to silence the ancient monotheism at every opportunity.

So just what are the implications of a consistently Christian political theory? Perhaps it is best first to understand what the implications are not. While the authors call for a Constitutional amendment recognizing Jesus Christ as Lord and as the Source of its life, liberty and law -- much the same as almost every other Western nation has -- they emphatically do not call for what moderns refer to as a "theocracy". "Theocracy," which is to say, rule by God, already exists: Christ's kingdom is "not of this world", and He rules the affairs of men no matter what they do or say. Rather, the authors believe a consistently Biblical social theory requires a separation of church and state, that the two institutions, along with the family, are ordained by God and meant to operate in very different spheres. They do not call for the submission of government to the church, or any earthly clergy: what they want is conformity of civil life, and indeed of civilization, to the teachings of Christ.

In practice, this means that the authors do not favor a change in the form of American government; they favor a change in its character and beliefs. It is an ideological and spiritual revolution they seek, not a revolution of the modern sort, and it is entirely based on principles familiar. The authors stake the claim of Jesus Christ's rights as King, but do not call for an Earthly king to rule in His stead; instead, they call for repentance and conversion on the part of those who do rule on Earth -- the electorate -- and for the election of leaders who will faithfully discharge their Constitutional duties not as faithful humanists or faithful Marxists but as faithful Christians.

And what does leadership as a faithful Christian mean, aside from not committing adultery, not breaking campaign promises, and not selling secrets to the Chinese? Well, actually, it means a change in worldviews, just as did the shift from the old order to New Deal statism in the 1930s. The authors take time to explore the Christian foundations of liberty in the modern world, noting correctly that of all the ideologies in history, only Christianity produced modern political and economic freedom. They detail the depravity which results (and which has resulted) from an abandonment of absolute right and wrong, and show why no adequate legal standard -- and certainly no truly free one -- can be built apart from the standard of Scripture. They trace the free market's roots in Biblical law and show why government must be both very small and very unintrusive. They offer a completely new paradigm for education, and call for reason over "sentimentalism." In short, they address, and address well, most of the vital issues of the day.

One cannot come away from Explicitly Christian Politics without a deepened realization of the religious nature of the "isms" of our time and the abysmally bad politics that flows from them; likewise, one cannot read this volume without an appreciation for the fact that these Christians have devised a better model. Quibble with the details all you like: Explicitly Christian Politics is nothing short of the rebirth of a vital Christian social theory, far beyond the "me-too" pluralism of the Christian Right to date. There's something special here. it is very clearly not going away.

Copyright: Rod D. Martin, 8 May 1998.

This book was recommended to me as a tale similar to the Velveteen Rabit tale. I purchased it with that in mind to read to my first graders. Now, I understand the need for reading elements and plots to carry the reader to imaginary worlds. I am not an advocate of strict censorship because a book has one or two "bad words" in it. Nor am I a "goody-two-shoes". Having said that, I would highly discourage teachers reading this book in their classroom. I did not preview the book before I read it, which taught me a valuable lesson. I ended up previewing every line before I read it orally to my students. My children were very bored! This book is anything but appropriate for 4-8 year olds. The wording is very elaborate. It celebrates witchcraft when it implies that although the witch had evil intentions, she had fun doing it. Toward the end of the book, the girl who is the object of the scarecrow's affection goes to the witch. The witch tells her that, "All people in love are wizards and witches." Why did the author have to put that in the book? It has nothing to do with the story! The theme of the story is that all things can become real if you love them. This story has a very odd way of getting to that point. The book is too long and very much over a 4-8 year old's vocabulary. If the book was intended for young children, it story should have been met with sensitivity and discretion. I am very disappointed that such a good moral was ruined by the story's characters, events, and thoughts implied in it.

This is a delightful book, not the least because of its beautiful pictures. The wording is imaginative and evocative, and the story is based on a piece by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Its magical theme lets children indulge their natural penchant for imagination and the world of "what if...!" A thoroughly charming tale about a "charmed" gentleman who started life in a most unusual way.

Being a fan of architecture expressed in a poetic manner, this doesn't even come close to John Hejduk's "Architectures in Love." Liebeskind's combination of words finds one struggling to find the relationship between one confusing sentence to the next, let alone one page to the next and getting absolutely nowhere. Quite possibly, Liebeskind is trying to challenge the readable written world of legibility and understanding the way in which his disjuctured/deconstructed architecture challenges the visual world. Sorry Danny, but you didn't reel me in!

I love this book, precisely because it does not appeal to reviewers who try to hook a non existing fish.This work defies theory by actually constructing space that is free of cartesian,rational,sense-making,space-avoiding narrative.

I wanted to like this book, having found SUNY's monographs on Taoism excellent, I had high hopes when I purchased it that this one would be equally good. I find the thesis that there was a common meditative technique behind the visionary experiences recorded in a variety of Near Eastern holy books fascinating and likely. However Merkur provides almost no evidence to support that thesis, nor does he anywhere reveal what that technique might be. Even worse he devotes an entire chapter to calumnies against Mohammed and vilification of the Koran (don't the editors at SUNY concern themselves with this kind of thing?). Maybe if he had really studied the esoteric traditions of Islam he could have found some clues that would have supported his point.

Merkur quietly puts together critical reading for those who wish to understand the source and style of mystical experiences. He gives us an invaluable key to classifying mystical experiences as we find them in literature and our own lives and he also points to the role of not divine intervention but the power of human imagination to bring these states about. A must reading for those interested in Jungian matters and mysticism.

As someone who has "fallen in" to costume design, I was hoping that this would be a great reference that would help me to get my ideas across to my director, but it has done little more than show how to proportion the male and female figures correctly. I was dissapointed in the lack of technical information about drawing fabrics on the human figure. Instead of technique, it gives a very brief overview of what changed in the line of the garments and has a half silhouette on the side of the page to show how the figure changed from period to period. There are several fashion history books availible that have much better overviews and illustrations. Only a few examples on four pages are given for each period.

this is a GREAT book, I saw it at school, and I had to own it! I has a lot of detailed drawings, and it has lots of drawings. This books is wonderful for anyone who wants to design costumes for theatre or fun!

The cover of this book gave me reason to expect that it would focus on the story of a family afflicted with Alzheimer's disease and the transmission of the disease through the generations. Instead, the majority of the book reads like a gigantic journal article. The author (a doctor) throws in a mere smattering of human interest here and there, but it's simply not enough to make the story interesting. I am not incapable of reading scientific writing, but page after page of it, as if it were a story in itself, is incredibly tedious.

I consider this to be one of the scariest books I have ever read--terrifying becaust it is true. The people in this family are afflicted with an autosomal (not sex-linked) dominant gene for early-onset Alzheimer's Disease. I can imagine few things more nightmarish than growing up in a family in which you fear that you could start losing your mental faculties at age 42--as many of your relatives already have.

The scientific research and family genealogical history that made this book possible are fascinating to read about. This is a thoroughly riveting book.