A very comprehensive manual for triathlon with contributions from well qualified and respected authors in their specialised fields. Full of practical information and examples. Generally following very sound principles, but some of this information is out of date. The training intensity guidelines and methods for determining them are out of date. The author now currently advocates a different method to determine this. Good for the overall structure of training and periodisation, but be careful, the heart-rate guidelines may be too high.

"Uncle Wizmo's New Used Car" was one of my kids' favorite car books. The picture are as fantastic as the story is whimsical. Uncle Wizmo buys a new used car, the irony of which is not lost on kids, after considering several cars that stretch the imagination. This book was the springboard for silly, creative, and inventive ideas my kids and I still laugh about.

"Walk to Where the Butterflies Are" is an amazing journal that combines a woman's search for healing after she is diagnosed with leukemia and a series of remarkable messages she receives as they are channeled from a nonplanetary committee through a friend of hers.

Joy Jones learns she has cancer in late 1983, and takes the suggestion of her doctor that she begin a journal to help her deal with the emotional aspects of fighting the disease. Along with writing about her feelings and her search for a healing lifestyle, she shares her thoughts and emotions with her good friend, Rodney McKeever. After about three months, Rod begins to receive mental messages relating to Joy's struggle to live life as fully as possible in the shadow of cancer. He begins by writing down what he hears in his mind, but rapidly progresses to speaking the messages directly to Joy. Since both Rod and Joy know how to write and read Gregg shorthand, Joy can easily write down every "sharing", as they choose to call each message, as it is spoken.

The messages, which continued for eight years, are jam-packed with detailed information for all people who are looking for ways to cope with the difficulties of life on planet Earth, not only people who have a life-threatening disease. Some of the topics covered in the sharings are how to direct your energy for maximum physical and emotional health, the nature of nonplanetary life, the reason for and value of planetary life, and the identity of the members of the committee who speak through Rodney McKeever.

"Walk to Where the Butterflies Are" is a must read book for anyone who is curious about the reasons we have chosen to be conscious, living beings on this planet. It is structured in journal form, making it easy to read and digest one entry at a time. The committee members speak in beautiful, easy-to-understand language, and I felt a sense of calm and peace as I read each journal entry, as if the healing messages in the book were meant not just for Joy but for anyone who heard or read them. Give it a try. You won't be disappointed.

This book encourages Christian men to cooperate across racial lines. There is a chapter on African-American men, Latino men, Asian-American men, Native-American men, and white men written by men from those respective backgrounds. In each chapter, the men discuss burdens that men of their race must bear and characteristics of their cultures that men outside of that culture may not understand. The editor, Mr. Cooper, compares racial tensions to the operations of a dysfunctional family and says each group of men plays their role in that dysfunction. The editor is a Promise Keeper, a member of a movement of Christian men that recently announced that they must do more to curb racism among Christians. Though the book assumes that every one is or should be a Christian, the valorous principles of men's studies are present here (examples: the book doesn't put down women, it discusses the burden of rigid gender roles, even the editor admits how often powerful advice from other men makes him cry, etc.). I was disappointed, though not surprised, that non-Christian men and gay men (both groups of whom have many men of color in their population) were not brought up. Each chapter ends with a section on what men of that racial group can do, what men outside that racial group can do, and further questions meant to stimulate action. As most of the authors are counselors, this book is modeled in that self-help style. It is written for the average American man, so academics and certain activists may be frustrated by it. Many of the ideas are borrowed (examples: references to Ellis Cose's "Rage of a Privileged Class", a psychological model of race that the editor mimicks for two consecutive chapters, allusions to the Woody Harrelson's "White Men Can't Jump", etc.) It may appear that the authors assume that if a man is from one race, then he has no connections to another. However, the editor and another author are mixed, prejudice against interracial coupling is condemned, and the white author discusses his experiences in a majority-black neighborhood; thus, mixed-race readers should feel included. When you consider who the intended audience is, this is a much-needed and well-done book. Though a little simplistic, it goes a ways in encouraging anti-racist activism among men who are often quite conservative and suspicious of diversity.

I found the book, "Whispers Of Reality", to be overwhelmingly simplistic and down to earth. Mr. Lee expressed a lot of ideas the realy hit home and left me thinking about some of the poems for quite a while. I think the book is fantastic and I reccomend it for everyone to read and enjoy. I feel the sentiments employed are very defining and opens a new relm of possibilities for us to think about. It is also very entertaining and the poem, "Closer To The Flame", really made me laugh and remember times in the back yard, while having a cookout. Very well done...

Zion's Men is a wonderful book and an anointed example of how a group of African-American male ministers can come together to minister as one.

You need to buy this book. It is a real testimony to men united for Christ!

Okay, so not everybody wants to sit on a mountain top & om out. Give us little animals a break. Transend the body, transsend the senses, the mind yadda yadda yadda. if transsending is all that profound, why bother with the karmic path of rebirth. I thought the idea was an acceptance of the entire self & not those bits & pieces we find loathsome, disgusting ... horribly, sentimentally human & impure & imperfect. We all desire sex, we all desire love & to be touched. Not to desire these things is not to be human. To aspire to being a perfect thought wave of the infinite, I thougth I was a piece of the pie. & I don't particularily care for those who have done all these perfect things thinking that to abstain from life is the ultimate goal of life. I don't want to apsire to be god. Been there, done all of that. & all I did was hide from the living. I can't stand that any more. I'm refuse to camp out from life any longer. So this book is not exactly "KRIYA YOGA". To release all imperfections is to release the very quailty which makes all of us all so human.

For those without a partner, there are some useful exercises such as the Rishi Isometrics and other breathing exercises. I would recommend learning the MentalPhysics Exercises taught by Edwin Dingle however. This book does contain a more effective form of the 5 Tibetan Rites of Rejuvenation that is very popular. Additional techniques are given to make the exercise more effective. Stephon Co's latest book also modifies the 5 Tibetans and makes it easier for the elderly and the infirm. If you're on the Tantric path you could also look into the other comapnion book, The Ipsalue Formula by Bodhi Avinasha. Kriya Tantra Yoga is supposed to be from Babaji Maharaj who gave it to Lahiri Mahasaya who gave it to Sri Mukteswar. Don't know if this is the case or if they ever even spearated White and Black Tantra. Tantra can be the way to enlightenment but most of the stuff out there is contaminated so it's hard to be a purist. Safer to stick with genuine Kriya Yoga for attaining your spiritual goals. For your other needs, check out the One Minute Guide to Prosperity by Sri Siva and Power Healing by Dr. Sha both of whom have web sites for more info.

Bodhi and Sunyata capture the essence of tantra in this easy-to-read workbook. Whether you're an advanced tantrika or a beginner doing preliminary research, you will gain great insights through reading this material and following the exercises. The book trains you in the fundamental techniques of tantra that grant you access to your spiritual and creative potential by using your sexual energy, and teaches you how to overcome obstacles you may run into on your way. It's a 'must read' for anyone on this path.

I picked up Rodney Brooks' FLESH & MACHINES with a bit of
uncertainty. I had known about Brooks, an MIT artificial
intelligence / robotics researcher of Australian origin,
for over a decade, having found his work on insectlike
robots very interesting. The uncertainty arose because
AI researchers tend to write materials that are either
completely opaque (Marvin Minsky comes to mind) or full
of grand arm-waving (and there's Hans Moravec for you).

However, FLESH & MACHINES actually turned out to be a
generally fun read. Brooks is a surprisingly good writer
who can explain things clearly and can be entertaining.
He explains the evolution of his AI-robotics thinking, which
is oriented towards the idea of building up complicated
behaviors through hierarchical layers of simple "reflex"
functions (as opposed to constructing a computation-intensive
virtual model of the world and rules for interacting with
that model), and then speculates on the future of his field.

The end result is less a treatise than a little bubbling potful
of ideas, which is fine by me because I find that a good
deal of fun, as well as mostly unpretentious. Although
Brooks is famously opinionated even that wasn't
off-putting, since he comes across much less than as a
beady-eyed zealot than as a advocate in a debate where
it never really gets personal.

There's a lot of amusing tidbits in this book. I hadn't
heard much about what Brooks was up to in the later 1990s
and was a bit surprised to find out he and his people
went into the toy business as a sideline, creating the
interactive "My Real Baby" doll.

Incidentally, he discusses the Furby doll in the context
of interactive toys and I was a little distressed to find
out that its "learning" capabilities for which so much
fuss was made were a fraud -- it simply had a program that
became more sophisticated in its operation over a
schedule, making it seem to become "smarter". Apparently
the marketing literature didn't exactly lie about this so
much as it misled. Alas, I swallowed it.
I am shamed.

The later chapters of FLESH & MACHINES do get into some
arm-waving, but some of it remains interesting, though
as far as I am concerned Brooks might have cut it down
a bit. For example, he critcizes in detail folks like
Roger Penrose who fabricate a case that machine
consciousness is impossible, which seems like paying
too a bit too much attention to obvious sophistries.
If we can't even *define* consciousness in a scientific
way it hardly holds much water to say that a machine
will never be conscious -- no matter how many words
Penrose throws at the reader.

A lot of the speculations in the final chapters aren't
much more stimulating than I might get in some good bit
of science-fiction, for example comic-book writer Adam
Warren's "Human Diaspora" stories, but Brooks does make
a few good points. For example, he suggests that the
only way of telling when a machine has become self-aware
is to ask it.

Now if you think that sounds silly, then how would you
know *I* was self-aware except by asking me? And if I
told you I was, what could you say to persuade me
otherwise?

In sum, FLESH & MACHINES may not be profound, but it does
have a lot of fun ideas in a compact package that doesn't
take too long to read. I think that I would find skimming
through it again in the future stimulating.

While parts of this book are interesting (the early discussions of individual robotics projects are interesting) the latter half devolves into what are largely stream of consciousness-type musings that veer between the quasi-interesting and somewhat muddled. This is a book that is not likely to satisfy those who are already savvy in the area, and intelligent lay people may feel (like I did) that they plopped down good money for a relatively undisciplined piece of work.

Fascinating predictions on the possible course of human and machine evolution by one of the world's foremost experts in the field. Whether or not one agrees with Brooks and shares (or does not share) his optimism is beside the point. He definitely sparks discussion!

Let me first say a couple things about myself so you can better know how to interpret my review. First of all I am a physician who was previously a biochemist, and I have been an assistant professor of medicine at a major university; and secondly (actually primarily as a person) I am a devout Catholic Christian. Now for my review.

Mr. Hoare starts his book out with a solid review of the scientific research done upon the Shroud. This does help for those who want to review what has been studied. And to his credit Mr. Hoare does this rather even-handedly. Where the author really fails is what he does after reviewing the data. And what contributes to his failure is his very poor understanding of Christianity, despite the fact the book describes him as a "protestant". This quote from the book should help explain what I mean:

"Experience and studies have shown that on this earth there are certain laws that operate. Is the only answer really that God stepped right outside those laws in the case of Jesus?" (p. 130)

This short quote fairly clearly shows how the author either doesn't realize that Jesus Christ is Himself God (in the second person of the Holy Trinity) and therefore not subject to the laws of nature since He is the creator of all that is, or it shows that Mr. Hoare does not believe in Christ's divinity. Either way it leads him to draw seriously flawed conclusions about Jesus. He basically suggests that Jesus was in a coma in the tomb and removed by followers who nursed Him back to health!

This brings us back to the basic truth that how we see and interpret everything depends on our belief (or disbelief) in God. A poor analogy might be that if someone saw a jacket hanging on a door and had no knowledge of "hooks on doors" then their entire interpretation of gravity would be incorrect since they would postulate reasons why the jacket did not fall to the ground. This of course would not be reality - infact it is the layman's definition of insanity (failure to recognize and live in reality).

So in essence his book reviews the evidence fairly soundly but draws conclusions from that evidence that simply are far beyond what the evidence is able to say. Mr. Hoare arrives at the correct conclusion about the shroud being that of Christ but simply takes too much liberty beyond that.

If other researchers along with forensic scientists say that the body on the shroud is in rigor mortis state, how can the man on the Shroud be "Comatose"? Although this book tries to give proof of the Shroud's authenticity, it turns into a "sour" experience once you find yourself with such a contradiction (not only for researchers and readers in general, but for Christians that believe in the death and resurrection of Christ).

The explosivness of the shroud of turin is that if you assume that the man under the shroud was dead, there is no natural explanation for the formation of the image. But if you assume a living body, not only the formation of the image can be explained by a natural process, but also alle the other findings (like the padle of blood under the back) can be explained.
Rodney Hoar dared to brake a tabu: Yes - under the shroud lay Jesus, but the man of the shroud was not dead - the evidence for this is clear.

The art is terrible. All the characters are ugly; one wonders are these the gods? Odin and Frigg are pure Asian. Odin looks like some ancient Korean bad man, and Frigg looks like a geisha girl. If the illustrations mean anything to you, pass up this book.

I picked up this book and the Usborne Greek Myths and Legends when I was about 8 or 9. I had gotten interested in Greek Mythology and wanted a book, and this one was right beside the Greek one. To this day, this book is one of my favorites.

This was the book that got me interested in Norse legends and mythology. For those of you who don't know about it, I think it is for more interesting than the Greek or Roman myths that are all that most people know.

This book is chock-full of some of the most interesting tales I've ever read. Even as an adult, I go back to it every so often to re-read some of the stories. It presents them in a way that even a kid can understand and enjoy. The art is also one of my favorite parts. The subjects definitely do not appear Norse (their only flaw), but the lavish scenes and rich colors more than make up for this. Whenever I think of a scene from Norse mythology, the Rodney Matthews's illustrations are the images that come to mind.

This book will always be my standard for Norse mythology, and it will always have a place on my shelf.

This is the book that drew me to Norse Mythology in the first place. The illustrations are absolutely beautiful, and the stories are all very good too. Heck, I would recommend this book on its illustrations (by Rodney Matthews, by the way) alone, but I don't have to. YOU NEED THIS BOOK!