Future Books

I have read every left behind the kids book ever published!In fact I have them all!This is one of the best volumes of the series!It's all about Lionel trying to find his Uncle Andre.All through the book is danger,excitement,and surprises!And the end will leave you hanging till you read the next book!

Después que leer el cuarto libro (frente al Futuro) del "los Niños Izquierdos Atrás" la serie, yo sería espantado al ser aquí en tierra y experimento la tribulación y los acontecimientos que acompañan.

Diría que esto lo mantenga en sus dedos y en usted no querrá leer de parada. También le sale colgar en un precipicio, y usted querrá leyó el próximo libro de la serie.

This novel depicts the historical figure of Hypatia, a scientist of the city of Alexandria around the turn of the 4th century AD. She became the victim of outraged Christian mobs accusing her of Pagan practices and she was brutally murdered. The contents of the world famous library, of which she was the keeper, was destroyed and irreplaceable manuscrips of antiquity vanished forever. I regret that this nice little paperback is touted in the catalog by the pubisher (The Royal Fireworks Press) as a book for girls. I think that's a mistake and may limit its market. It definitely is a book for all ages and certainly equally for boys and girls. The author tries to make the historical contents pallatable for young readers by fictionalizing Hypatia's interaction with her younger brother and a score of historical characters. A difficult job. In spite of trying to personalize Hypatia and her time, the book reads quite academic and presents demanding language. I think that parents or teachers should co-read the book and discuss it with young readers, who for this book are categorized as junior and senior high school.

I Thought this book was really well written. At some Points it was a little boring, but at the end I couldn't put it down. It's about a young women Hypatia who lives in the time Cristianity starts to take over Rome. It takes place in Alexandria, Egypt and she tries to save the library of Alexander. During this she goes through a lot of adventures.

I read this book perhaps 15 years ago and it still stands today as one of the most interesting writings on the topic. Lund shows that consciousness and death are inextricably linked in such a way that survival of consciousness beyond death is intellectually defensible. The most curious part of the book is the discussion about brain states and consciousness. Mainstream science assumes consciousness is *produced* by the brain. Yet an equally plausible scenario is that the brain is a tranducer or receiver of consciousness whose source may lie outside the brain itself, like a television set which is the receiver and not the source of the signal. Smashing the TV may destroy the set but not the signal which lives on. So where's the evidence for this mode of consciousness? Lund turns this argument around and asks, Where's the evidence that consciousness is generated by the brain? The answer is surprising and one of the reasons this book should be read widely.

Most books on the survival of death simply review the vast amount of material in other books regarding the issue. There will be chapters on NDE's, OBE's, apparitions, reincarnation, and communication through mediums, and the objections of the skeptics will largely be ignored, or briefly discussed. Dr Lund's book is different.

Yes, there are chapters devoted to summarizing the available evidence, but these comprise only about half of the book. The rest of it (the first half) discusses in great detail (and with great fairness) the various skeptical objections to survival. All are shown to be based on unwarranted assumptions. Lund concentrates mostly on the skeptical objection that consciousness is produced by the brain, and therefore cannot exist without it. Probably the best chapter in the book is called "Is Consciousness Produced?" in which he shows that the argument that consciousness is produced by the brain is fundementally flawed. The second half of the book is mostly dedicated to discussing empirical evidence that seems to suggest that consciousness can at times operate independantly of the brain in the living, and that the consciousness of of least many of the deceased has in fact survived death of the body.

The book is philosophically sophisticated, but written for the layperson. If I can think of any criticism, it is that the book should be updated and republished, because since 1985 new evidence has been gathered (NDEs in individuals with flat EEG readings, veridical NDEs in the blind, repeatable experiments with ESP - see website for Jessia Utts, UC Davis) that further strengthens the case for dualism.

Jean-Francois Revel died recently. It was a tragic loss for critical political thought. Revel, long established as the senior statesman of French political commentary, has written many books, all of which are worth reading. "Democracy Against Itself" was written at an interesting time for the world: it was published in 1993, and had seen the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, yet did not have the advantage of seeing the subsequent outcomes of the fall of the Soviet Union. Interestingly, this thoughtful commentary has proven far more durable and accurate in it's predictions than most other books of the same era.

The title of my review comes, of course, from the famous quote by Georg Cristoph Lichtenberg, and Revel accurately uses it as a metaphor for the hollow promises of communism and socialism. Perhaps better than any other author (perhaps excluding Solzhenitsyn) Revel analyzes not only the objective failures of communism and socialism, but the underlying reasons behind the failures, both from a historical and a human behavioral point of view. Unsurprisingly, Revel was generally unpopular in his native France, where he was an outspoken critic of socialism (and especially of the illegal activities of the Mitterrand government) and a proponent of representational democracy, with specific admiration for the US.

This book not only is effective in defending democracy and capitalism, it is insightful into the parallels of socialism and third world politics (which very often are the same thing,) with special dislike for policies of the UN which have tended to impede development and human rights furtherance in the third world, especially in post-colonial Africa.

Chapter twelve is devoted to the problems inherent in Islamic governments, and is especially noteworthy given subsequent events. The foreshadowing Revel provides in this chapter is not only visionary, but accurate. As far as I am concerned chapter twelve is the most important in the book and should be studied thoroughly by anyone with an interest in current world events.

The book has a couple of trifling faults, however. The first is in the latter part of the book when Revel discusses "interventionism." I believe that he fails to make the case conclusively for the setting of interventionist policies, and leaves the issue at least partly unresolved. The second is a byproduct of his exceptional intellect: the book is very verbose, and in translation from the original French, is occasionally difficult to read. I am not arguing that a book of this complexity or stature should be light reading, only that some sentences are more convoluted than absolutely necessary, occasionally to the detraction of the underlying point of discussion.

This is an important book. Despite the fact that it is now thirteen years old, it still contains utterly brilliant analysis of current and historical events, and is an excellent introductory course in the political analysis of communist and socialist governments and their pitfalls. I got this book out when I heard of Revel's passing. His was an intellect and wit rarely seen, and his thoughts, even though imperfect, are always lucidly presented and worth consideration. I highly recommend this book.

Much more hopeful and upbeat than How Democracies perish, Revel has had a Damascus Road experience. His concepts of Third Worldism and the cycle of dependency fostered by statist markets is clear and ineluctable, and can be seen still influencing the Africa of today.
Yes he does forshadow the rise of Islamo-fascism well but makes a strong case throughout his book that there is a moral duty, of even petrhaps intervention for democractic nations when confronted by governments that oppress their consitutencies

Very good book.
First chapter shows the basics of derivatives (someone would like Hull's for more detail).
Second is what I look for. Introduces derivatives pricing and stochastic processes by example.
From Black-Sholes to exotics and interest rate options, the reader will find PDE equation, boundary conditions and (a lot of) closed formulas.
Everything step-by-step. It is not a formula reference (like Haug's) but a book you will study in order to take practice to construct your own models.
Second half of book is about numeric solution. Well explained, a lot of case studies, but no pseudo-code or source code CD. Buy a Numerical Analysis book to support you with algorithm and coding if you need.

This is a GREAT book... if you are looking for treatment of "options pricing" from 2 specific perspectives.

In the first half of the book, the authors tackle the pricing issue using PDEs only, paying little attention to the Martingale approach. The treatment is VERY detailed, starting with the Ito Lemma (one dimension and n-state variables), and gradually moving from Vanilla to Exotic options. There is also a shorter chapter on Interest Rate Derivatives.

The greatest thing about the book is that every result is either proved or strongly justified, and that each section nicely builds on previous results. The Barrier & Lookback options pricing formulas are thoroughly developped and the authors do not try to skate around more complicated aspects of the theory. The sections on American options (Linear Complementarity & Free Boundary Formulations, location of the free boundary) are gems! The book is obviously math intensive and sometimes a little dry, but efforts to go through all the sections are well rewarded.

In a second part, specific numerical techniques for solving the PDEs are thoroughly explained. First, numerical techniques are reviewed in a very tight chapter, swiftly and clearly presenting all one needs to know to efficiently tackle solving PDEs numerically. Then, specific option problems are discussed in details. No code is provided, but the mathematical procedures are very well laid out.

Overall, I found the monograph a lot more mathematically detailed than most other books on the market (Hull, Wilmott, etc...), while being relatively good at clearly highlighting why certain issues are problematic and constantly keeping the big picture in perspective.

Somewhat surprisingly for a first edition and given the sometimes complex equations, the editing is VERY tight (good English, few typos) and the incremental steps are well balanced in terms of providing enough information for reader to easily fill the gaps. The only suggestion for further editions would be to collate ALL the pricing formulas (some, when replicating calculations already presented, are left to be demonstrated as an exercise) in an Annex for quick reference. More coverage of Interest Rate models using the same detailed approach would also definitely add value.

In all, a very good book.
Kudos !!

This is a must have for every household that has kids. The book is very informative and is easy to understand. If every household had this book Americans would not be in such debt. The least we can do is teach our children to be responsible financially. I highly recommend this book.

I saw this author on Fox News Channel and after hearing her philosophy on managing finances I immediately bought this workbook. It is an easy read--I read it in about 4 hours and then re-read it with my husband before we put the plan into action with our two young boys. The 10 percent (giving)-10 (saving)-10 (investing)-70(spending) distribution of money is sound and very motivating when one can see that they are able to give first, still save money for the things they want and yet they can see their savings growing, which for children, it needs to be concrete. Our boys are eager to do their household chores and have both purchased 2 items they had been saving for with different attitudes than they had when they just expected to be given the items. I highly recommend this book to all parents and maybe we can change the 'entitlement' attitude of children by training them to be responsible with money early on. I wish I had been taught this plan!

In this book Mr. Chester warns that the big communications media -- TV Networks, Big Cable Companies, Microsoft, etc. are attempting to find ways to take over, control, and therefore make a lot of money on the Internet. He is absolutely correct. They would love to do just exactly this.

The author is head of an organization, The Center for Digital Democracy, that is attempting to preserve the openness and diversity of the Internet in the broadband era. The book is a Wake-Up call to get people's attention to the problem.

I'm not so sure that I fully agree with his fears. Yes, from a connectivity standpoint he is right, someone, probably a large company will own the wire that comes into your house. But I don't see it likely that they will have much control over the content being delivered. If they could, the politicians would find a way to eliminate the SPAM (I get several a day), phising (I just got one of these today), viruses and porn that is on the net now.

Part of the problem from the big company standpoint is that the web is international in scope, you can't control the web hosts in China or Nigeria. It will be interesting to see how this works out in the future.

There is an irony in writing a review of Jeff Chester's (Center for Digital Democracy) critique of new media and the future of democracy on this site given how successful Amazon has been in using the internet to do the things that Mr Chester so despises. The book contains very detailed discussions about how large telecommunications companies have and are subverting democratic processes in America. The book is both a brief history of political developments in modern communications and a work of art in judiciously critiquing these developments in order to suggest what we as citizens should do about it. Armed with this in hand roll on the revolution!

This book covers some new and interesting topics in interactive digital multimedia industry, such as Digital TV, Metadata, Digital Broadcast, Digital Rights Management, Ambient Multimedia, and so on. This book provides you a broad and comprehensive view about the current multimedia application and service industry. It's the first book I have ever seen to cover so many key words and state-of-art technologies in this field. It's really a useful book for both beginners and advanced readers.

Besides the key words above, the book also covers many critical standards, from MPEG-2/4/7/21 to DVB/MHP. However, the author efficiently combined the standards, theories and practical examples, explains these profound things in a extremely simple way, which prevents you from tedious and difficult studying of these standards.

The authors focused on both the technologies and the applications. The vivid examples, and the coherent technology clue, make the reader easily get involved into the scenarios in this book. In addition, so many useful links and references make you easier to go deeper into specific topics. Furthermore, a web site has been create for this book. You can find more interesting information there.

One way to determine the level of growth of a research field is to assess the availability of relevant conferences, journals and books. In particular, the latter is a good measure of the maturity of the field, since they provide an overview of a critical mass of published work. In the interactive TV field, there been more than a few conferences and special issues in journals, but books are still scarce. So, it was a pleasant surprise to discover the book "Digital Interactive TV and Metadata", which was written by a very active team of researchers from the Digital Media Institute at the Tampere University of Technology, in Finland.

The first part of the book (Theory) begins with a short overview of DTV standards and the respective applications types that are enabled by this basic set of industry standards. Next, the book surveys the fields of Web, multimedia, DTV, in order to provide an extensive overview of metadata standards, which is the core focus of this work. Having laid the background theory, the authors present the "Digital Broadcast Item Model", which they have helped define, in the context of the MPEG21 standard. The first part of the book closes with a discussion of the implementation requirements for metadata in DTV systems.

The second part of the book (Application) begins with an interdisciplinary analysis of DTV in the fields of business strategy, consumer behaviour and narrative, all of which are put in a metadata context at the end of the chapter. Next, the authors describe the application of metadata in several DTV fields, such as digital rights management, production, interactive TV content, and personalization. The book closes with a discussion of a few innovative applications and future scenarios for DTV.

Overall, it is a rather accessible technical book for DTV and metadata. It is suitable for researchers and developers of DTV systems. In a field that is in constant growth it would have run the risk of missing recent developments, but the book is coupled with a web site that offers additional and up-to-date information (http://www.digitalbroadcastitem.tv/). Moreover, the website offers complementary slides, handouts and exercises that can be used for teaching a DTV and metadata module in university programs.

Agonito packs a lot of useful eye opening information in her book, "Dirty Little Secrets: Sex in the Workplace."
Reminding me of little kids getting caught playing "doctor" or shocking their parents with what they are engaged in behind closed doors in the name of "curiosity" came to mind after I read Agonito's outstanding book.
In the workplace adults are all grown up but still get caught being "curious" with one another at times.
The innocent curiosities we all must admit we experienced as kids do not go away with age and maturity, but the way we deal with them should and must noticeably change if we are to work together.If not, the consequences can be unbearable (loss of job, possibly family).
Agonito presents a wonderful argument for the reality that we all go to work having sexual feelings and that they don't disappear at the workplace.
This book also explores the obvious differences in how men and women seem to handle this overt sexual presence in the workplace: men are flattered, women tend to feel more threatened (or harrassed) by it.
The positives that can come out of using this sexual force to be reckoned with have the ability to actually create a wonderful environment, filled with caring and intimacy without having sexual activities.
Agonito aptly makes the case that sexual feelings exist not only after work but during; and the author/researcher provides useful solutions to dealing with this "fact" of workplace mindsets.

Outstanding resource for all adults. A must read.

Dirty Little Secrets explores all forms of sexual liaisons in the workplace, consensual and coercive, and examines their impact on and off the job. Rosemary Agonito considers how both men and women use sexuality as a form of power at work, the differing perceptions of ex by women and men on the job, the various sexual games both genders play, the most dangerous forms of sexual liaison in the workplace, and more. Dirty Little Secrets also explores the negative consequences of sex in the workplace, as well as looking at sex as a positive force on the job. The hidden underbelly of sexual politics common in all workplaces are revealed, along with concrete suggestions to individual and corporations. Dirty Little Secrets is an important contribution to gender studies, workplace rights, business management, and sexual harassment policy development.

Most people who have had someone close to them die long to know they are well. This book confirms what the bereaved know in their hearts - that their loved one still lives. This book contains reassuring confirmations of this belief through dreams and other exper\theiences of a variety of people in a variety of experiences with a common belief that there is a life to come where we will be reunited with those we love.

This is a beautiful book for the soul. Vera Glenn's collection of people's personal loving encounters with heavenly visitors will give comfort to all who have lost loved ones. I recommend this book for everyone, not only because of its hopeful message, but it is a delightful adventure to read.