This review is of the 2nd edition printed in '89. I bought this book off the shelf at SCU as a review source. The texts chosen at SCU have a tendency to lean toward the practical applications side and away from the theoretical. Johnson's text was no exception. Practical aspects of limitations of solution methods implimented on computers are discussed. A bit dry or lacking in motivation but otherwise a good coverage of the subject matter with answers to odd numbered problems at the back. My only real criticism of the text was the authors' tendency to introduce some important concepts in the problem sets themselves rather than covering them in the main body of the chapter. This is awkward if you want to use the book as a reference.

Very good book for the beginning Aikidoka. The book covers basic and advanced techniques. Which helped me alot.

For someone like me who has spent countless hours, days and weeks in the company of four or more Labrador Retrievers, this book is a hoot. It take s light-hearted look at Labradors, and at the personality traits and character qualities that make them the single most popular breed in America today. Labs are among the most social of canines, yet they are remarkably calm and pacific once they know you. Which isn't to deny the fact that they are very active and energetic, and that anyone who lives with one needs to ensure the dog and he or she spend sopme time outside in vigorous play every day. But as the author tells us, we love labradors because they seem to represent the best and most admirable qualities we happen to admire.

Labradors are amazingly loyal, and are quite keyed into your emotional state and sense of well-being. As a person who sometimes suffers from migraines, I can attest that the dogs seem to reconize my symptoms and key their own behavior from this perception of the way I am feeling, being much more willing to simply take a nap with me than usual, since they seem to understand from past experience that the migraine will dirve me back to bed. They show many endearing and reamrkable traits, and we find ourselves amazed b just how intelligent, preceptive, and attractive they are as a species.

Labradors also live almost exclusively in the moment, and are ethusiastic and energetic in their pursuit of fun and frolic. Anyone living in their company can attest to the fact that you are never at a loss for entertainment when your Labrador friend is around, and he or she are happy to just be with you, and are almost oo willing and too anxious to show you just how excited they are to have you around. Coming home after a long day's work means a kidn of instant celebration, with four Labradors jumping, barking, and wall-banging, so glad are they to have me back home with them. Find a human who is that glad to see you, and you have found true love, my friend. Yet it is all here in spades with the Labradors, and this entertaining little book will seerve to amuse you, educate you, and sometimes surprise you with its nuggets of information, parcels of knowledge, and bits of wisdom about just why it is that "Labradors Rule". Enjoy!

Having met the author some years ago on October 19th, the annual Yorktown Day celebration of Cornwallis's surrender, and with Thomas Nelson, Jr., being my fourth-great grandfather, I am a bit partial to this book. The detail gives a since of being there as Thomas Nelson grows up in the aristocracy surrounding him. The authors ability to pull together daily newspaper items, wills, government documents, family genealogy, and wide source of information into a flowing lifespan of a great patriot. Descendants of the Virginia Page or Nelson family will find this book a great joy as they will learn more than any other book about the Signer of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Nelson, Jr. Enjoy and live the past in this remarkable recovery of our Revolutionary history.

This is a very good book because it can save you when you are in a hurry! The text is short and the pictures are very useful. It's a general book and talks about the mainly ankle and foot's problems and diseases. Thanks to the opportunity to have it!

This is an excellent collection of papers. It is a good starting point for people looking for recent work on the computational approach to understanding transport at interfaces. I suspect most readers will come to the book from the citation of one of the included papers. I think they will find several other papers that will be useful.

Thomas Szasz is a champion of individual autonomy and personal responsibility. This is his primary value.

Szasz is also regarded by some as "the most controversial psychiatrist in the world." He displays the fearless courage to question the most fundamental tenets of the entire "profession" of psychiatry.

Because of the volume of Szasz's writings - some 20 books and over 400 published articles - authors Richard Vatz (professor of rhetoric) and Lee Weinberg (professor of legal studies) have done us a great service by including Sasz's main ideas in one volume. Furthermore, to achieve balance, they've included some important critiques of Szasz's work.

Szasz's first major contention is that "mental illness" is a myth. Szasz does not deny the occurrence of unusual, unconventional, and destructive thought, communication, and behavior - and the resulting suffering - generally included under the "mental illness" umbrella. He does take issue with the semantics: the definitions, who gains from the definitions, and who loses as a result of them.

According to the authors, "To Szasz, the use of strategic metaphors - especially the camouflaged use of such metaphors - deprives humankind of its greatest freedom: autonomy. Unlike religious and democratic political persuaders who claim no false identity and implicitly recognize man's autonomy, psychiatrists present themselves as scientists and explicitly deny the right of autonomy to those whom they choose to define and control."

Szasz claims that as a result of psychiatric definitions, psychiatrits - as well as the political system through them - gain the power to effectively "convict" people, incarcerate them, and subject them to involuntary "drug treatment" and other forms of dehumanization, without trial, judge, or jury.

Another of Szasz's major contentions is that "deviant behavior is freedom of choice." To Szasz, autonomy implies that individuals own their own bodies and should be free to do with them whatever they like, provided they don't harm others. This includes taking drugs and comitting suicide.

In my opinion, one of Szasz's geatest contributions to humanity is his revelation of how words and definitions are used to gain power over others and effectively enslave them. Authors Vatz and Weinberg were remiss in that they did not include a chapter on this topic, particularly seeing that Szasz wrote two books on it: 'The Second Sin' and 'Heresies.'

Also, in my opinion, Vatz and Weinberg are mistaken in the above quote where they say, "Unlike religious and democratic political persuaders who claim no false identity and implicitly recognize man's autonomy..." Many religious leaders demand all kinds of obedience which deny man's autonomy. Some claim special identities with characteristics like "papal infallibility."

Similarly, most political leaders operate in the name of government with the special identity of having the power to solve all kinds of problems mere mortals can't handle. Most political persuaders explicitly deny man's autonomy: "You may not commit suicide"; "You may only put into your body what we permit."

In 'Heresies' Szasz wrote: "This is what poets and politicians, psychotics and psychiatrists, therapists and theologians have in common: they all deal with metaphors that sustain the dignity and lives of some and destroy those of others; and they all deal with metaphors mendaciously..."

Despite this one shortcoming, authors Vatz and Weinberg have done an excellent job in encapsulating Szasz's central ideas in one volume. They handle the closely related issues of personal autonomy and individual responsibility particularly well.

I highly recommend this book, particularly for anyone interested in freedom and its destruction.

Frederick Mann

This tradepaperback reprints the first apperarances of all the original Thunderbolts. For those of you unfamiliar with the Thunderbolts, they are Marvel's newest and greatest superhero group. What makes them so interesting is that they are all former villians! A half dozen of Marvel's villians known as THE MASTERS OF EVIL changed thier identities to a new group of "good" guys in order to gain the public's trust and then strike! A true Troyjan horse. The only flaw was that most of them

found the public's audulation and addmiration too much and could not follow through with their "master plan". Now they struggle to stay on the right side of the law and are trying to atone for previous indiscresions. That's where this book comes in. It is a compilation of all the characters first comic book appearances in their former villianous identities. This book reprints the entire stories the characters were originally in. Featuring such heros as the Hulk, Captain America, the Avengers and more. You get classic Marvel stories from the 60's and 70's. Highly recommended

This 'Essential' really doesn't have any exciting material, really. It's all just pointless, meandering filler. The characterization is nonexistent and the plots are very run of the mill. It's only worth seeing and reading as a sort of time capsule. It's not very good, but it's one example of how comics were like in the sixties.

Easily the best volume of the three Avengers Essentials to date, we now see Rascally Roy Thomas at the scripting helm, along with Awesome John Buscema doing most of the art chores. Say no more! This duo is one of the greatest in comics lore... and even demi-gods Barry [Windsor] Smith and Gene Colan show up to help out on art.

This collection contains the spectacular introduction of the Vision, the Avengers vs. the (old) X-Men, several battles with arch-foe Ultron, and the classic Avengers vs. Avengers thanks to the machinations of the time-spanning Scarlet Centurion. I'd give this compilation five stars, but the several issues featuring Hercules and the battles in god-ville are just plain dull. (Avengers #50 featured this crap? YEESH.) But don't let these few pages spoil the rest of the great fun.

This third volume collecting the earlier issues of the Avengers sees the title emerging from the somewhat listless period on the last volume. Roy Thomas is now the writer, and is plainly undertaking the work with enthusiasm and a desire to create something very much worth reading.

This volume sees the membership of the team in flux, with characters being added and removed, and some not even officially joining the team. The stories themselves see members departing for personal reasons, and older members, who are technically off the team, dropping by.

It also sees the introduction of some elements that continue to have impact today: the first two conflicts with Ultron, the introduction of the Vision, Hank Pym taking up the identity of Yellowjacket, the Scarlet Centurion, the conflicts of loyalty that beset the Scarlet Witch and, in particular, Quicksilver...

Art-wise, we are generally in the safe and capable hands of John Buscema, although there are a couple of issues illustrated by Barry (Windsor) Smith, who will soon go on to greater things... Also present are Don Heck, Gene Colan and Sal Buscema.

The stories still show the elements of a relatively new writer working out what works and what doesn't in this format. However, they become increasingly self-assured towards the end, and Volume 4, when it is released, will show a far more mature writer...

The legacy of one of the Civil War's greatest leaders is shamelessly misrepresented in this book about one of the war's forgotten battles. Rather than present the reader with an unbiased and accurate depiction of the Battle of Franklin, the authors relentlessly rant about John Bell Hood, smothering
unsuspecting readers with unqualified speculation, rumor mongering, and unflattering conjecture under the guise of historical fact.

Hood's almost superhuman accomplishments as a brigade and division commander under Lee and Jackson, and his short but successful tenure as a corps commander at Chickamauga made him Jefferson Davis' candidate to save the fading fortunes of the Confederacy in late 1864. Replacing the tentative
Joe Johnston as commander of the Army of Tennessee, Hood launched several bold attacks on Sherman in an unsuccessful attempt to save Atlanta.

Burdened by disloyal and incompetent subordinates, and troops unaccustomed to offensive warfare, Hood nevertheless embarked on an ambitious invasion of Tennessee, in a last ditch effort to destroy Sherman's supply lines, and provide relief for R. E. Lee's exhausted Army of Northern Virginia. At Franklin, with the Federal army fleeing to the safety of Nashville, and having absolutely no other realistic alternative, Hood ordered a frontal
attack. The assault failed, with the Confederates suffering frightfully high casualties.

Authors McDonough and Connelly deny readers the mountain of historical record that clearly and concisely details the quite rational and logical reasons for the attack. They mislead readers with overt mischaracterization of historical facts, and present opinions that are not supported by facts or statistics.

It is bad enough when readers invest time in nonfiction literature and gain no knowledge, it is even worse when readers are provided inaccurate information and propaganda that results in incorrect knowledge. Reading this work will result in an inaccurate understanding of the Battle of Franklin, and General John Bell Hood.

This book, awash in prejudice and misrepresentation, should be avoided!

In a telegram to J. Davis dated 12 July 1864 from his headquarters near Petersburg Va

Telegram of today received. I regret the fact stated. It is a bad time to release the commander of an army situated as that of Tennessee.We may lose Atlanta and the army too.

Hood is a bold fighter.
I am doubtful as to other qualities necessary

This is a well written, easy to read account of the Battle of Franklin. The authors put the battle into focus, not only in a geographic sense but from the state of mind of the men and commanders who fought there. This work helps to explain much about General Hood (a proven leader and fighter of the war's earlier days) and his decisions made there. From this book it is easy to see the "why" and "how" of the fight at Franklin.