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I am constantly impressed and in awe of the workmanship, talent and accomplishments displayed in this book. The colors are vivid in the presentation, the explanations of each piece are detailed and leaves you wanting to know more or go see a similiar exhibit.

First of all a "conventional and/or literal translation" of a philosophical term is not automatically the best translation. The early Tibetan translators were well aware of this and created an artificial vocabulary to translate Buddhist terms from Sanskrit into Tibetan -- so artificial that hardly anyone, even the most stalwart Tibetan Geshes and Khenpos, ever reads those old translations. Instead they read Tibetan-authored commentaries on the translated scriptures, which commentaries are highly technical, but nonetheless more readable than the translations. So perhaps Mipham's Beacon of Certainty is overly technical in its approach, but then Mipham's original composition is nothing if not a technical treatise.

If the author of Mipham's Beacon of Certainty had been perfectly literal in his translation of the term "zung-'jug", for example, he might have used "pair-joined" instead of "coalescent". But what makes more sense in plain English: "pair-joined", or "coalescent"? What translation of " 'dra-bcom" more readable: the ungainly, literal "Foe Destroyer" or the elegant Sanskrit term, "Arhat"? And which is more evocative of the Tibetan "ye-shes": the venerable Greek "gnosis", the numbingly commonplace "wisdom", or the rather literal "timeless awareness"?

A solid case could be built for using any of these terms. In the Beacon of Certainty it appears that "gnosis" was chosen because in the philosophical and mystical literature of the West "gnosis" has been used in ways very much analogous to how "ye-shes" is used in Nyingma philosophical commentaries. Perhaps not coincidentally, "ye-shes" translates the Sanskrit "jñana", which is closely cognate to the Greek "gnosis". While "gnosis" and "gnoseology" (the "logic of gnosis") might appear stilted or artificial to the uninquisitive reader, it turns out that the use of these and other Greek- and Latin-based technical terms in the Beacon of Certainty is hardly unwarranted. If Pettit is to be faulted for using Latin and Greek terms, he might as well be faulted for using Sanskrit terms like "samsara" and "nirvana". Those haven't been included in Webster's American Dictionary for as long as the words "coalescent" and "gnosis".

If by using such technical, non-literal or unconventional terms the author has rendered Mipham's Beacon of Certainty less than accessible to some readers, he ought to apologize on that account. However we should not forget that the original Tibetan text of the Beacon of Certainty was not written in a "literal" or "conventional" style. It is a highly technical work that, by Tibetan standards, is highly original in its presentation. Why then shouldn't a translation of a highly technical and original Tibetan treatise also be technical and innovative by English-language standards? A technical philosophical commentary should be translated and commented upon by the standards of technical philosophical commentary. It should not strive to conform to the philosophical and literary standards of Cliff Notes or Reader's Digest.

Most readers of Buddhist philosophical commentaries in English translation cannot expect to go cover-to-cover without also having to consult an excellent English-language dictionary, or without studying the footnotes. Tibetan monk-scholars face a similar challenge when they first study a treatise like the Beacon of Certainty. They cannot make sense of it without the learned commentary of their professor-Khenpos, who serve as interactive encyclopedias.

I would suggest that the inaccessibility of learned studies and translations of Tibetan philosophical commentaries is not necessarily a fault on the translators' part. It might also be the fault of the reader for expecting an intrinsically difficult and profound subject to come in a predigested format. If inaccessibility really is a fault in Pettit's case, then the great Tibetan translators and philosophical commentators are also of fault, because their writings are so technical as to be almost completely inaccessible to the literate Tibetan layman. If Pettit's translation and writing are somewhat inaccessible to the average reader, so are those of Vairotsana, Tsongkhapa, Lonchenpa and Mipham.

I think the same rule applies to reading these authors as to weight training: "No Pain, No Gain". Which sales pitch will you believe: the one that says you can look like Arnold in just fifteen minutes a day, or the one that says you have to bust your behind?

A translation that needs to be studied carefully, and read repeatedly, in order to yield the depth of the original text, may do greater justice to the original than a translation that seems "obvious" the first time through. This would seem especially true in the case of the Beacon of Certainty and its commentary, which are difficult and subtle texts that are memorized, studied and debated for a year or more in Tibetan monastic colleges.

That does not mean that the quintessential points of the Beacon of Certainty cannot be made more accessible for the layman. The Beacon can and should be rendered more accessible, but that I believe is the job of the kind and learned teacher who discourses on the text (which is the traditional way of studying). The translator's job, on the other hand, is to be as faithful and precise as possible regarding the original author's intention.

thank you, and apologies!

You will find a fascinating alien world and people in peril, but you won't find a moving human story. There also seems to be too much sex in this book--but whether this is a plus or a minus I'll let you decide.

The 200 settlers are specialized in particular fields and are supposed to be the cream of the crop in their specialty. One thing scientists back on Earth didn't plan for was that during the cryogenic freezing they had to undergo, some would suffer minor brain damage. A few become idiots, some just lose some of the power of memory or critical thinking. All in all, things are going very well.

Colonel Cadmann Weylan the military representative and war veteran believes they are going too well, that the colony's security and vigilance is becoming soft. The perimeter of the site is left in disrepair and if he didn't fix it himself, they would be defenceless. He can't quite put his finger on his worry. It becomes apparent when a amphibian alien, similar to Earth's komodo dragons, dubbed a Grendel, finds a taste for terran lifeforms which could lead to the destruction of Avalon. The alien has intelligence and is superfast and a killing machine.

The colony is also suffering from internal dissension. Weylan is treated as a goofball because of his constant vigilance. Plus he is in love with Sylvia Faulkland, who just happens to be married to another man, and also pregant with that man's baby. The problem is that the husband knows. Zack Moscowitz, the leader of the colony feels threatened by Weyland's failure to go along with the status quo.

You would think that the combination of three respected science fiction writers would produce a masterpiece for the ages. Much like music supergroups, the end product ends up no better than the artists produce seperately. Sometimes, it's even worse. The same is true here. The book is entertaining, but light years short of being a classic.

I liked the relationships in the book. There was some effort to build them between the characters. The bad things about it were the usual gaps in logic that have to exist to make books and movies about monsters work. For people to be killed by a monster they have to be really stupid. The colonists here reject the reality of the monster that is killing them even when there is strong evidence. For example, they have a speedboat race knowing that there could be a Grendel in the water. The fact that the planet is just like Earth reminds me of the old Star Trek episodes where every planet had an earthlike atmosphere. To expect the plants of Earth and other animals, like fish, to thrive there, is beyond belief to me. Another thing is that the thought processes of the Grendels are similar to that of the shark in Jaws in Peter Benchley's novel. "Must eat. Kill. Must challenge the pale lifeforms." Actually, this reads more like the dialogue of the indcredible hulk. This novel is also very similar to scenes of James Cameron's Aliens. Actually, parts of Ridley Scott's Alien also. Seeing as how it was published in 1987, one year after Aliens, it makes the plot even more suspicous. Well, for the usual bestseller dreck, this book is pretty good. It's worth reading, but don't think too much. I'm surprised it hasn't been made into a movie yet. It would make a good Michael Bay film.

Li Po, or Li Bai as he is called in standard Mandarin, is one of those rare such characters in Chinese history, and Simon Elegant brings him convincingly to life, a man of flesh and blood and spirit.

I know little of Li Bai; here in China he is much memorialized but less remembered, so the tales in "Floating Life" are as much as I know about the mythology beyond the repute of the poems. I'm sure Elegant did his research, though, and it makes for an engaging tale.

The device of the acolyte/narrator is awkward at times, and the breaks away from Li Bai's voice cause the book's progression to stumble, but it does allow the tale to be told in first person and without overly rigorous chronology. Li Bai's tales, told through his perspective, witty and insightful, are what make the book.

And the book does justice to Li Bai's poetry and ethic. Reading it, one gets lost in the quiet moment, as if downing a bowl of warm Huangjiu in a boat on the West Lake at dusk. Simple, sublime. Li Bai did many things, and is enshrined in the catacombs of history, but what matters is that he knew how to be happy, how to live in the moment.

The main weakenss in the book for me was that only Li Po really emerges as a character. The others who show up, either in the story of Li recounting his life while going into exile or in the story of Li's life, are poorly developed. Elegant works several poems by Li into the text, but I would have liked to see more.

It is worth noting that I have seen several translations of many of the poems here. I can't comment on the accuracy of Elegant's versions, but they are generally delightful, more enjoyable than other translations into English of the same poem.

I recommend it on the whole, for the charm of the story and of the poems translated in it, but I can't do so with great enthusiasm. A better novel with some similar material is 'Bridge of Birds' by Hughart.

Some of the other reviewers said that the book glosses over the technical aspects of computers too much. I disagree. I don't think Bronson dumbed down the computer explanations as much as summarized them in normal language. Having a lot of technical info in this book would detract from the main thing, which is the story.

All in all, Bronson has written a fine book. The book has lots of twists and turns and is a page turned until the end.

This author recommends "correcting" digging by filling the hole with water and holding the dog's head under "until he's sure he's going to die", and doing this for several days in succession. He recommends "corrections" that include hanging the dog on a choke chain with his feet off the ground, and chides the "soft" owner who may then feel sorry for the dog that vomits and collapses. He recommends such dangerous techniques as duct-taping a chewed object into a dog's mouth for *days* to punish chewing. He recommends threading a dowel through a rubber hose and hitting the dog with it for up to 20 minutes to "correct" some problems..... and on, and on.

Positive dog training is now the standard for dog trainers all over the world. He may have been the only game in town 30 years ago, but now we have better techniques and options that are very successful and build a better bond than one based on fear and force.

Please read "Positive Puppy Training Works" by Joel Walton, or "The Power of Positive Dog Training" by Pat Miller, or any of a myriad of other excellent positive training books out there.

Becky Schultz, CPDT
Golden Valley, MN

Whether or not you agree with Koehler's principles or not is a personal choice, but one thing is clear - THE METHODS IN THIS BOOK WORK QUICKLY AND EFFECTIVELY TO PRODUCE LASTING AND RELIABLE RESULTS.

Warning: the section on training your dog to attack is not for novice trainers!

I found this book to be a very effective description of life here in Silicon Valley (where I live). It was also very well-written, entertaining, and thought-provoking. Bronson, contrary to the quick-turnaround approach of this culture, takes his time with the people he interviews. You get to hear their stories as they tell them, but then you learn what happens to those people over time, when things don't turn out as they'd expected (for better or worse). You get the sense that these people came to know and trust Bronson, and so told them a more well-rounded version of their stories, not the 3-second sound bite version you get in the papers and trade magazines. I liked that he profiled a range of people, not just the 20-year-old dropouts-turned-millionaires, but also the hangers on who keep trying to make it but don't. Also appearing is the CEO who juggles all the unpredictable factors that go into the timing of an IPO, the Big Thinker who tries to make meaning of all this technological wizardry, the Sales Person who uses his understanding of the engineer's mindset to gracefully steer them toward the sale, the programmer who takes off to go squirrel hunting days before a critical deadline, because he can and because if he doesn't, there will always be a critical deadline to meet.

I also thought his analyses were fair, sometimes complementary, sometimes critical. He even managed to cover George Gilder, a conservative futurist, without the smug condescension most journalists can't hide when describing conservative points of view. Even though I didn't find anyone in the book who specifically captured my own experience with Silicon Valley culture, I still found all the people he did profile fully believable - I certainly know people like these. On the other hand, I was introduced to other people I know about but haven't met, and I enjoyed getting a first-hand view of their world. I think this book has a lot to offer to people who are curious about what it's like in Silicon Valley as well as to those of us who are living it.

One of the greatest surprises was how the book was broken out, by the different types of business people in the "dot.com" world - i.e. the start-up, the IPO, the drop out, etc. It is a great book to use as a learning tool. It should be required reading in College business classes on setting up an Internet business.

Being stationed in Zhongshan China, it was imperative for me to learn the language and learn it quickly. I waded through at least 10 books and tape courses on the subject. My recommendations after much experimentation are as follows:

1. Chinese The Easy Way - Philip F.C. Williams - Ph.D. and Yenna Wu - Ph.D.. This book will ground you in the grammer and pronunciation essentials quickly and in my opinion is the best beginners book on the market for this subject matter.

2. Transparent Languages "Langauge Now - Mandarin Chinese" software. Allows you to actually speak and grades your pronunciation.

Following, this, use these two texts to round it all out. The texts would definitely be a bit easier to use if they had an index but this isn't a show stopper at all.

The characters and vocabulary used seem to reflect those that appear in the Beijing University Press books - the Practical Chinese Reader and the Modern Chinese Beginner's Course.

Examples of grammar are succint in expressing the point. A grammar book like this is especially useful in breaking down verbs, adverbs and prepositions. After getting this book, it helped me past a difficult period where I couldn't understand why some characters and verbs acted liked they did.

Combined with Beijing Uni's Modern Chinese Beginner's Course, a suitable workbook (again, if it is from Beijing University Press it is likely to pull characters from those featured in PCR, et al), an exercise book (the same authors have created a basic and advanced workbook and, although I haven't had a good look, it's likely to be a wise buy), a good dictionary (I recommend Oxford's Pocket Chinese Dictionary) and maybe a secondary course, with tapes/CDs to listen to (Kan Qian's Colloquial Chinese is pretty good), then you have a pretty good collection of Chinese language learning resources to cover most bases. Then you just need a native speaker or two...