This books is a "manual" on facilitation that prepares you very quickly. Great examples, good checklists, good index - well worth the price. My only quibble is a small one: charge a few dollars more and improve the paper and printing quality.

Most comprehensive book on the topic I've seen. Very practical info. I interned with a small consulting firm that did excellent facilitation work, but their only training strategy for facilitation was "watch what I do and then do it" -- no real framework for a beginner. I wish I had known about this book; it put it all into logical structure and process, and allowed me to make sense of what I had seen a few times as a beginner. I've used its many practical checklists to become a respected facilitator, and still improving thanks to this manual.

This book is an encyclopedia of practical guides and scripts for all levels of facilitators. I was able to immediately implement the carefully scripted process techniques in my University teaching and consulting work with other organizations. A real must for practitioners who are serious about making groups work!

"Galactic Tours" is a charming little book for escapists like me. It is pretty much a collection of description of fictional tours to exotic planets, organized by their distance from Earth, each description complete with accomodations, prices, local attractions - everything a tour book should concern itself with. The book starts with the basics of space travel - takeoff, staying at an orbital station, touring the moon, Mars, and several other planets and satellites, and eventually introduces the reader to faraway (and, of course, fictional) planets, each with its own central catch (volcanic planet, mushroom-covered planet, metal planet). "Galactic Tours" would be intolerably dull and perhaps even irritating, but each two-page spread of descriptive text is preceded with a fantastic painting that makes the whole thing come alive. In all honesty, I cannot imagine anyone buying this book, although it does make a lasting favorable impression.

96 pages of alien races, new worlds, and color pictures going along with the text. The book tells you everything you need to know, from cost, travel, local facilities at the hotels (like menus and baby-sitters available) and rules one must follow to stay safe. The last page is a booking form so the reader can select where to visit and alert the Galactic Tours about how much sleep you, the reader, need, your caloric intake and other requirements. Great for the child of the family or the child within.

I loved this book. I read in about 16 years ago and the art and text really transported me to other alien worlds. Well done.

A great book for the coffee table or the library. Concise desriptions of built projects as well as conceptual ideas for the City of New York. Focuses on individual neighborhoods as well as the city as a whole.

First of all, the book is just too darned big to handle comfortably. With over 1300 pages, I don't know whether to congratulate the authors on their thoroughness or criticize them for having no sense of self-restraint. This tome could have been divided into three separate volumes, and each would have been a substantial book in itself.

The epic length of the book allows the authors to go into incredible detail. The book is divided into chapters primarily by neighborhood. There are also chapters devoted to the topic of interior decoration, the 1964-65 World's Fair, "Beyond the Boroughs," "Historic Preservation," and "New York and the Arts." The numerous b&w photographs, averaging more than one per page, are stunning.

A chapter titled "Death by Development" walks the reader through the ideology of the era that led to public housing monstrosities, as well as middle-class housing of dubious aesthetic and structural integrity. This same chapter discusses proposals for air-raid shelters, some of which would have had expanses large enough to hold a nine-story building, as well as the 1945 incident in which a US military plane crashed into the Empire State Building. The same chapter shifts to transportation issues, and presents a 1951 proposal for an unconventional "people mover" under 42nd Street, and the beginning of construction in 1972 on the Second Avenue subway (which perhaps, will open sometime in my lifetime). All this in just one of seventeen chapters - gives you some idea of the expansiveness and thoroughness of this book.

Many readers will take special note of the eight pages devoted to the World Trade Center. This book was written before "9-11," and the book's coverage of the WTC is haunting, to say the least.

From our perspective, the era in question (1945-1976) constitutes the "dark ages" of urban planning and architecture. Yet, the beautiful period photographs and accompanying text immerse the reader in the aesthetic mentality of the era. This book is a masterpiece, and maybe later in the day I'll find the strength to move this eight pound book from my table to my desk.

which gets to the core of what metropolitan cities, and specifically New York, are all about. Politics, codes, social agendas, design, and chance mix, struggle and interchange to become Architecture, which in return can be read as the memory and the conscious of the city. Given the sheer amount of information provided by this book, it's almost stunning how easily it reads. Countless anecdotes amuse and surprise through this enormous journey and keep the reader's interest focused and a smile on his face.

This is a fun book that should help your youngster develop an interest in American History. It is easy to read an has great illustratiions. You will not be disappointed with this purchase. Look for others by the same author.

I bought this book for my 5-year-old nephew, and already I can hear him laughing at the illustrations of Edison sitting on goose eggs in his father's barn, causing a chemical fire in a baggage car, and courting teacherly reprisals for his apprarent boredom in a conventional classroom. These all-too-human mishaps from the great inventor's life mix well and bring interest to the charmingly illustrated discussion of his accomplishments: lighting up New York City, inventing the phonograph, inventing the first movie camera and making the first movies with a story. More than just providing a laundry list of his accomplishments, though, this little book explains in simple terms how he worked his way up to owning his own laboratories in Menlo Park, first as a candy butcher turned telegrapher, and finally coming into some money with his invention of the stock ticker. Thomas Edison's accomplishments are something to admire, and I'm definitely happy to start my nephew off learning about him with this book.

Have you ever needed a short and sweet biography for younger students yet could only find books for independent readers? Adler has solved the problem. This book is a wonderful introduction for K-3 graders who need information but cant handle those lengthy chapter books. Abundantly illustrated to keep little eyes busy while listening to the story. Loaded with biographical information and includes a timeline of important dates. Other titles in the series include; Thomas Jefferson, Abe Lincoln, Christopher Colombus, George Washington, Martin Luter King Jr. and others.

At almost 40 years of age, I had a fear of the water. There are few books on the subject that are detailed and explicit. With "Swimming steps to success" at the pool-side I was able to learn that I can float, and with confidence, learn the basic effective strokes. I am indebted to Mr. David G. Thomas, he succeeded where my busy swimming instructor could not.

After 10 years of failed attempts at learning to swim, this book did the trick.
Excellent step by step approach builds confidence and avoids the "just do it" leap that is so hard to make.
Each step begins with the why and the what. These are followed by drills that gradually put all the parts together. The drills are very well thought out, you are learning all the time, and you never get pushed out to the ragged edge where it all falls apart.
Thank you David Thomas!

I didn't know swimming 2 months before, but now, after reading the book, I know the 4 great styles of swimming. That's all I want to say!

You can always count on Thomas for your kids to enjoy. His stories are almost always a lesson, but fun in the process. I only wish that there were more tapes and story combinations available. I still do prefer to read to my son, but he also loves to just listen to the story by itself while playing. I hope they come out with more soon.

My 3-year-old son listened to this cassette repeatedly with a walkman when we took a 4 hour flight. A stress-free flight courtesy of Thomas.

My son loves Thomas the Tank Engine and this book, with the cassette, helps him with his pronunciation of the words that he is having trouble saying. I wish that there were more then 4 books on tape with Thomas.

When it comes to evolution, almost anyone can quote Darwin's theory of natural selection...but how many people set out to prove it? In this book, the authors present the beginnings of tackling this ambitious task. Their approach is truly unique...rather than examining the diversity of all life, they have focused twenty-plus years of research on a tiny, rather obscure, cave crustacean. By drawing from numerous scienfific fields (ecology, systematics, mathematics, limnology, evolutionary theory, even molecular genetics) the authors have produced one of the most complete pictures of the effect of natural selection on a single animal. Amateur cavers might find the techical aspects of the book somewhat daunting, while expert scientists may view the study as too limitied -- yet both can appreciate the ramifications of what this study, of a little shrimp, might someday teach us about ourselves.

The evolution of Gammarus minus is the subject of a remarkably interesting text published by Harvard University Press. Gammarus who? Gammarus what? Gammarus minus is a little freshwater crustacean, an isopod, that inhabits surface streams, springs, and caves.

We all have some knowledge of the theory of natural selection and evolution, and yet, I suspect that few fully recognize the complexity and difficulty in conducting research in evolutionary biology. Just how does one go about proving or disproving some aspect of evolutionary theory?

David Culver, Thomas Kane, and Daniel Fong argue that caves and cave animals are valuable empirical models for the study of evolution, particularly for the study of adaptation. The unusual morphology of cave fauna makes them "quintessential examples of evolutionary tradeoffs, a recurring theme in the study of adaptation". Also, as the cave environment is more uniform and less complex than most habitats, the analysis of environmental effects on selection is accordingly less difficult. And convergent evolution in many isolated cave systems offers a degree of repeatability that is often absent in evolutionary studies.

Adaptation and Natural Selection in Caves is remarkably well-organized and clearly written, and is accessible to the persistent layman interested in cave biology and ecology. However, I caution the reader. This is not a popular book on evolution for the layman. This is a detailed, well-documented, thoughtful multidisciplinary scientific study whose primary audience is active researchers and graduate students in the biological sciences.

Evolutionary biology does not fit snugly into a narrow specialty. The reader should be prepared to encounter biospeleology, ecology, electrophoresis, genetics, isopod morphology, karst geology, stream hydraulics, and systematics. As advanced statistical techniques are commonly used in genetic and evolutionary studies, the casual reader should not be surprised by references to the F statistic, dendrograms, k-means clustering, rank-3 biplots, correlation matrices, and short discussions on determining the optimal splines for curve fitting.

Likewise, some terminology is likely to be unfamiliar. Fortunately, the authors have compiled a glossary to assist the reader with terms like adaptive radiation, allozyme, apomorphic, exaptation, electrophoresis, gene flow, homoplasy, neoteny, and vicariance.

My comments on this wide ranging multidisciplinary study, on the scientific terminology, and on the advanced statistics are not intended to dissuade the reader. This is a good book that may require some persistence, but it is well-worth the effort. I commend Culver, Kane, and Fong for providing an intriguing look at a complex, interdisciplinary research topic.

Initially, I found it quite useful to read, chapter by chapter, the concise introductions and the concluding summaries. I then returned to the beginning of the book to study the chapters in detail. The summaries are clearly written and allow the reader to quickly and easily develop an overview of each chapter.

As a final comment, I suggest that teachers in the biological sciences would find Adaptation and Natural Selection in Caves to be an excellent choice for a reading assignment for undergraduates in biology, ecology, genetics, morphology, and limnology. Culver, Kane, and Fong clearly answer the question: "Just how does one go about proving or disproving some aspect of evolutionary theory?"

Back in 1993, 4, and leading up to 6, Random House published about 5 or 7 pictureback books from the Thomas series, from the era of Ringo Starr narrating. The main difference between those books and "The Cranky Day" is quite disappointing. "The Cranky Day" (which is even titled wrong. [Cranky Bugs]) is written straight from the vhs tape, as if the closed captioning was copied and pasted into a book. Nothing is explained, and I am not exaggerating. If you haven't seen any of these stories yet, you'll be very, VERY confused when you hear the dialect of an engine say "LOOK OUT!" or, "DON'T MOVE", then to see an image, of what might be happening, with no reasonable explaination given. There never is a sentence in the book saying: "Percy had helped lift Cranky up with a rope, but foolishly forgot to detach it." or something with reason. Overall, it's still an okay book. but I am disappointed that Random House copied straight from the tape...yuck!

THE CRANKY DAY is made up of three stories: Cranky Bugs, Put-Upon Percy, and Lady Hatt's Birthday Party. This inexpensive paperback is perfect for the Thomas fan. It has the colorful photographic "illustrations" that look like the series we're familiar with. This one is REALLY popular with my Thomas fans, and you can read the stories one at a time or all three at once. But beware -- when you're finished they're going to want you to read it again! and again! and again!

This book contains 3 stories from the fifth series of Thomas the tank engine & friends.These 3 stories are titled 'Cranky Bugs','Put Upon Percy',and 'Lady Hatt's Birthday Party'.

Agreed, excellent character development and story telling with many twists and turns, but in my opinion the book just fizzles in the end. Booth Stallings is the main character throughout most of the book; however, in the last few chapters his importance and intelligence just fades away. He's supposed to be an extremely knowledgable, brilliant "terrorism" expert, but by the end of the book he's portrayed as an old fool. Maybe I missed some elusive underlying point, but I was very disappointed. Thomas's writing reminded me of the John Grisham novels I have read. Great, fast paced reads with highly identifiable characters, but alas....quick spurt endings with very little thought.

OUT ON THE RIM features two senior citizens. One is in the process of recovering from a stroke while carrying on a revolution and the other is re-entering the world of work after being between jobs less than twelve hours.

Thomas comes up with an entertaining plot full of double and triple crosses set in the early years of the Aquino government while the Marcos forces still loom as a large threat. The story centers around an attempt by the Marcos gang to destabilize the Aquino government by funding a rebel group led by Alejandro Espiritu. Enter Booth Stallings, Espiritu's World war II buddy and presently a down-and-out sixty-year-old academic just fired from his job with a foundation as an expert on terrorism. He is hired indirectly by the Marcos regime as an intermediary.

On his way to the Philippines, Stallings joins forces with a collection of experienced international con men. Artie Wu is a forty-four year old giant who is a pretender to the emperor's throne in China. He is accompanied by his long-time business partner, Quincy Durant. In a cast full of desperadoes and other untrustworthy people, Otherguy Overby manages to stand out. His nickname speaks for itself. It's always the other guy's fault. Georgia Blue is a statuesque beauty who doubles as both a body guard and a strong-willed, brilliant and independent operative. As a team, their most remarkable quality may be their ability to survive.

As the plot unfolds we begin to appreciate the latent talents of Stallings. He also starts to believe in his own abilities and realizes at the end he has found a new career for his dotage in company with Overby, Wu, Durant and Georgia Blue.

A spellbinding book that I could not drop until it was finished. The characters (Artie Wu, Durant, Otherguy Overby, ... ) are so alive - I expect them to step right out of the pages. The plot is marvelous and the story is written beautifully.

The data is very detailed and comprehensive indeed.

However, I found that the secular data, AD2000 on Thailand is a bit out of date, especially concerning the Government, the Legislature and the Political divisions (which should be 73 provinces instead of the 7 provinces published)

I also found the number of Christians in Thailand a bit too exagerated, especially the number of crypto-Christians (at 570,000 in mid-2000), Independent Christians (at 735,801) and Protestants (at 303,000).

The number of Catholics (at 255,000) and Anglicans (at 465) in Thailand in mid-2000 are quite accurate.

There should also be more frequent updates.

Almost 20 years ago the initial edition of the WCE was a great advanbce in religious information and statistics. The second edition (now 2 volumes) reflects much of the change in the religious scene in the last 2 decades and that alone is worthwhile. What is interesting is that the projections made 20years ago for the year 2000 have often turned out to be 'spot on' and this adds to the value of the work. I commend this latest effort w/o reservation and look forward to updates more frequently. Religion is one of the things that everyone shares-we all have it. This book should be in every library-esp. religious ones.As a priest who follows and studies and interacts with this world I can recommend it most heartily!

David Barrett and Todd Johnson at the World Evangelization Research Center in Richmond, Virginia have just completed the 2nd edition of the World Christian Encyclopedia. This 2,400 page, 2-volume reference set tells the status of Christianity and of evangelization in great detail for every country, people, language, city, and province in the world -- together with a trove of other information, statistics, and resources for the decision-makers in the world of missions. A companion CD, the World Christian Database, is planned to follow. This particular work, when complete, will help facilitate the analysis now missing from this monumental enterprise, a truly impressive work of religious, especially Christian, demographics. There is really nothing like it in terms of sheer raw data.