effect

I read the first half of this book, and was dying to stop reading. It was scientific and statistical, but I could not use that to quit. What I really needed, was Chapter 1 - OK here's an overview of how to quit . . . clear details to follow in subesequent chapters.

The tobacco industry has conspired for years to make tobacco more and more addictive. Ms. Brigham has given clear examples of this in her new book.

Dr. Brigham has done an excellent job of explaining the grip which tobacco has on persons who use it. Her information is very matter-of-fact, when suddenly she drops in a dose of humor which makes the book very enjoyable. The many charts are also very informative -- when shown to my friends, they encouraged them to read the book.

Anybody who knows and cares about the health of a user of tobacco should read this book. Also, tobacco users themselves should read it to learn more about why they smoke or chew.

This book's descriptions of Curitiba Brazil, and Kerala India are priceless, and unavailable most anywhere else. If you're not a botanist, the third of the book that talks about the reforestation of the U.S. may be a little tedious.

What irks me is that this stuff is very important if we're serious about "living lightly," but McKibben doesn't do such obvious things as include photos. The entire book could use a serious edit just for readability...

Don't get me wrong; the book is definitely worth reading, especially for the account of Curitiba. We're deprived, here in the U.S., compared to those third-worlders.

A real eye-opener about civic possibilities.

In a time when many people finally accept the fact of global warming and of continuing human assault on the environment, Bill McKibben has launched this wonderfully written, inspiring, and informative book, another in his continuing series of important essays on the complex relationship between humankind and the planet we inhabit. McKibben, a former writer for The Atlantic Monthly magazine, transplanted himself and his small family in the Adirondack region of upstate New York in the late 1980s, from whence he has come once more to deliver a healthy dollop of insight, whimsy, and wisdom concerning the way we continue to walk not so lightly on the earth.

Like most environmentalists, McKibben is deeply concerned about the continuing onslaught on the skin of the planet, and about our continuing disregard for the welfare of everything within the natural environment we most depend upon to have a continuing quality of life. Yet he is also propelled by aspects of his own experience with the ecology of his local area to set off on what he terms to be an exploration of hope, in the sense that he was searching for examples of recovery and progress in the natural landscape. One wonderful example he uses is that of the recovery of the amount of land reforested since the signal journey of one Timothy White, who in traveling in the early 1800s found very little land not cut and turned to the plow. Yet some two hundred years later, much of the Northeast forest is once again covering the landscape, and all of this in spite of the vastly increased population over the landmass in question.

Of course, as McKibben admits, must of the reforesting took place based on the gradual abandonment of the lands of the Northeast in the so-called western migration as we fulfilled our "Manifest Destiny", and this migration also spelled further deforestation efforts in those area under active migration. Once again, part of the genius of the natural environmental processes can be viewed in such a way, requiring not so much in the way of human intervention as in a kind of purposeful benign neglect (my own hackneyed term, not McKibben's). Left alone long enough, natural processes are underway that are restoring the Northeast forests to their primordial glory. And, like McKibben, I wonder at the good fortune some of us have to live in relatively sparsely developed and populated areas, where we can enjoy nature on amore personal level, where deer and bear and moose and all sorts of birds are free to live and roam. I sit in wonder with my friends the Labradors and watch, enraptured as the geese soar noisily above me this time every year.....

Moreover, one must share his frustration and sadness at the prospect of such massive forces denuding and despoiling the ecosystems even as we read and write. While he offers some reasons for hope, the truth may be that things will have to become much worse for human beings to begin to act more responsibly in following his advice to find many more ways to walk more lightly on the earth. It is imperative for those of us who understand the magnitude of the dangers confronting us act to continue to try to inform others, while also preparing to gradually break our own bonds to this culture of waste and wanton destruction. This book is more fuel for our own sustenance as we begin the long journey back to what Joni Mitchell once called "the garden'. See you there! Enjoy!

I didn't read the whole book, but just the section on Kerala. It gives a pretty good picture about Kerala society for the outsider. Tells you why you don't need a high per capita income to have a high standard of living.

Paleobiolgist Boulter utilizes several academic disciplines to discuss the history and causes of mass extinction events. He uses such events as the basis for his argument that the natural systems controlling the earth are in a constant state of balance and equalibrium. Humans, particularly since the dawn of industrial societies are effecting the natural system earth to such an extent that the planet must respond. The natural system will adjust itself to maintain this equalibrium.

The scope of Boulter's book is impressive. He combines numerous scientific fields and principles (paleobiology, geology, ecology, physics, biology and evolution, computer modeling, and chaos theory just to name a few) to created an integrated, mostly coherent scientific treatise. Using this integrated approach, Boulter describes in detail all previous mass extinction events. He explains that planet earth is a complex, self-stabilizing natural system, and mass-extinctions are one of the ways the system maintains equalibrium. Despite the scope of his suject, Boulter manages to make his argument concisely (about 220 pages).

After explaining how the system functions for the first 2/3 of "Extinction", Boulter takes the natural step of discussing how the system will respond to human activities. He focuses on the last century since significant human disruption began with the industrial revolution in the early 1900s. He explains how human activities related to pollution and climate change are becoming progressively more disruptive, and explains how he thinks earth will respond. Ultimately, the system will maintain it's equalibrium, regardless of how the individual components are effected (or destroyed).

While Boulter's argument seems generally well reasoned, I agree with the previous reviewer that it's sometime difficult for the reader (me at least) to connect all the diffuse elements of his scientific argument. Readers with a strong background in natural science will likely find the book fascinating, but many (myself included) will find some aspects of "Extinction" somewhat technical. There were many instances where I had to re-read previous sections in order to understand his complex, multi-faceted explanations. Additionally, Boulter doesn't really seem to consider if humans have altered how the system operates. Has human technology and food production made it possible for the system to be disrupted or become more flexible than previously? He doesn't really discuss this issue, but perhaps this argument is petty and irrelevant to the larger issues raised.

Despite it's potential difficulties for readers with limited knowledge of natural science, the scope and importance of "Extinction" make it fascinating for anyone intereted in the future of humanity and life on this planet. It's difficult to dispute his conclusion that the system (earth) will maintain itself at the expense of one of it's components: the planet will survive, but ultimately humans will not.

While I think that paleobiologist Michael Boulter is certainly correct in his assertion that we are going to go extinct, as all creatures eventually do, I don't think we will go the way of the mammoth or the giant sloth or the Neanderthal. Our exit may very well be totally unique. We may go the way of the dinosaur, of course, our world obliterated by a cosmic catastrophe, or we may blow ourselves up, and then watch the survivors die out in the ruins. But more likely we will pass away quietly as our culture transforms us from what we are now to creatures that are partly the result of genetic engineering and partly the result of mechanical ingenuity, until one day we may notice that we are so different from the humans of the past as to be an entirely different species.

But Boulter is not concerned here with cultural evolution. He is looking at the biological evolution of life on earth primarily through the fossil record and in particular through Fossil Record 2, a huge database that he has studied extensively. His theme, despite the book's title, is the diversity of life, the radiation of living groups, etc., and how an understanding of that diversity through an analysis of the fossil record can shed light on the evolutionary process. He analyzes the growth of life's diversity after the major catastrophic events in the earth's history and plots curves and comes to the conclusion that biodiversity is an example of exponential growth, and that the phenomenon of evolution is another example of a self-organized system (such as sand piles and the weather) driven by "power laws and pink noise." (p. 125)

Some of the interesting conclusions that Boulter comes to along the way to forecasting our extinction is that we probably did do in the Neanderthal. (He lists "selfishness" as one of our distinctive traits that the Neanderthal apparently didn't have enough of.) And yes, we wiped out the major fauna of North America within a thousand years or so of our arrival from across the Bering Strait. In fact, we are now living through a period of mass-extinctions, in particular of large mammals, and we are a major factor in those extinctions.

My problem with this book is that it is sometimes hard to follow Boulter's argument since he is not as direct as he might be. Then again it may be that I need to read more carefully! At any rate, the fact that biodiversity follows an exponential curve until it hits a catastrophic event is certainly one of his points. And that evolution is an example of a self-organizing system like that of a sand pile, and behaves in similar ways with large changes occurring less often than small changes, etc., is another. Do "groups of animal and plant Families follow clear rules in their origin, expansion, peak diversification and eventual extinction?" is a question he asks. (p. 124) His answer is yes, and the pattern can be traced. He adds that "extinctions are an essential stimulus to the evolutionary process." (p. 183)

The "new idea" (as he terms it, p. 182) that mass-extinctions come from "within" as a feature of self-organization does not seem convincing to me, although it is certainly intriguing and worthy of further study. He writes: "So modern man is kicking the sand pile and causing a severe avalanche that only started to crash down at the end of the last ice age...the fundamental cause continues: human aggression. The first phase was our killing other mammal species...then through human history our killing of one another."

But is it only a temporary irony that today there are more humans on this planet than ever before?

Aggressive we are. And we kill each other with an amazing abandonment, but have such actions led us toward extinction? The evidence is all to the contrary mainly because our reproductive abilities and our ability to exploit planetary resources outweigh our murderous tendencies. And besides the cause of at least some of the great mass extinctions of the past (huge meteorites) clearly came from without.

Boulter sees small animals inheriting the earth after we are gone. He notes (p. 193) that "insects and birds are still at the early stage of high diversification." What this means is that a group of animals that is continuing to diversify (continuing to grow in the number of species) will be safe from extinction until the diversification slows. This is a nice scientific understanding, but what it says to me is that a successful body and behavioral style (e.g., a Family or order or some other classification of organisms) is less likely to go extinct than a less successful one. One might say, QED.

He speculates (his terminology, page 176) that "our system is in free fall, out of control." We won't need "nuclear weapons," he posits, "or the inventions of science fiction writers." We are "doing very well...just with our use of fossil fuels." Exactly what he has in mind here is not entirely clear. Does he mean that we will pollute ourselves to death?

Elsewhere he writes about global warming, caused in part by our burning of fossil fuels, but advises that fluctuations in temperature are common, and that for much of the history of life on this planet it was hotter than it is now, and that, in fact, for 250 million years from before the P-Tr mass-extinctions until the Miocene there was no frost on earth. (p. 113) Furthermore, "between AD 900 and 1300 cattle were farmed in Greenland and the French tried to embargo English wine." (p. 122)

In short, this is not a text for the causal reader. It is dense, and in places, technical. But what Boulter has to say is worth the effort.

I enjoyed this book as an extra to previous books I had read on evolution, especially Richard Fortey's 'Life'. Mr Boulter details the effects of continental drift in the evolution of species in a much more regarding manner than many other writers. And the book does detail an analytical method that suggests not only that evolution and change are inevitable, but also so is extinction. Inevitably it will come to humankind in its turn - or will it? Perhaps evolution will cause change rather than extinction just as it is now believed many dinosaurs - rather than dying out - changed to become birds. So the message of the book is not necessarily gloomy even though it does talk of the 'end of Man'.

Omega - 3 is an essential food & essential edditive to most of us which need it for every day activities. Our body & our mind can't stay for long without the Omega - 3 and because of short of this product in the westeren diet we are suffering many kind of new ilness which weren't known in the past. The book which lighted one of the Omega - 3 qaulities, based on a small grup and that why it couldn't be more than another article of Omega - 3.

This book is essentially the published results of a study Donald O. Rudin did in the early 1980s. In this study, Rudin gave a group of forty-four patients high doses of flax oil and vitamin supplements for two years. His results: Most patients in the study showed health improvements in a variety of areas, including cardiovascular health, emotional disorders, immune disorders, irritable bowel syndrome, joint and muscle problems, skin problems, and urinary tract problems. I recently read this book along with Andrew Stoll's The Omega-3 Condition in my ongoing search for better health and relief from persistant, nagging feelings of anxiety and depression. While Rudin's words and the results of his study give me great hope, my own experience with flax oil has not been as dramatic as the participants in his study. After a two months of taking a daily dose of flax oil (and fish oil, I might add), I have noticed that the dry skin in my eyebrows and ears has dissipated, but I have not noticed any anti-depressant, anti-anxiety effects while taking flax oil. Rudin's "modernization disease theory"--that most of the ailments plaguing us today, (i.e. cancer, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, and depression) are the result of dietary modifications in the last century, appeals to me on an emotional level. Also appealing to me is the idea that our modern healthcare system is totally monopolistic and based on dealing with problems that are not medical, but are more related to nutrition and lifestyle. However, I suppose that even if all of this is emotionally appealing to me, the science of Rudin's flax oil/omega-3 theory is probably not very valid. Overall, I think this book is interesting and well worth a read for anyone interested in nutrition.

Want to live to age 100? Read this book and emphasize the GOOD fats in your diet and you may well get there - or beyond. Don't be taken in by the naysayers or negative feedback. The allopathic medical people are well aware of the TREMENDOUS healing abilities of Omega 3 fats in the diet and have been for many years, but they'd rather ignore it. Read this and learn how to be a survivor. Don't fall into the allopathic trap.

This book was Michael Palmer's worst. The book begins in Germany during WWII with Nazi doctors conducting experiments on humans. Then, forty years later the story continues. Usually his books are full of suspense and drama. This book lacked both. I kept reading it in hopes that it would get better. Unfortunately, it didn't. I don't recommend this book to anyone.

I am a complete medical thriller junkie. I hardly ever read the more "mainstream" fiction/thrillers that are written, but I will always read a medical thriller. Michael Palmer's Side Effects does not disappoint. This is, in fact, the first novel I've read by Palmer, and I will definitely take the opportunity to do so again.

The plot was really interesting, I think the characters were well-developed and real, and the "action" scenes were exciting. Palmer can take real life and make it that much more interesting by throwing in controversy and conflict. The relationship between Kate and her husband was a real relationship, and I was glad to see her husband fight so much in the end to save Kate's life and career.

If you're into medical thrillers, then I would recommend this book for sure.

We thought Michael Palmer's medical thriller ("The Sisterhood") was quite good, especially for a first novel; this one, his second outing, just might be great! An interesting prologue from Nazi Germany sets the stage for a story about illegal (and of course, unethical) testing of unapproved drugs on unaware human subjects. Incredible suspense and tension are generated through a number of faceted story lines:

- Leading lady Dr. Kate Bennett, a hospital pathologist, fights the establishment at every turn to uncover the truth;

- The wealthy patrician father of Kate's husband is ready to interfere in their lives and marriage at every turn for the political gain of his son;

- Women are dieing of uncontrolled bleeding with mysterious uterine problems almost new to medicine found in the autopsies;

- A greedy drug firm is in cahoots with a women's medical center to dispense secret drug tests;

- Unscrupulous hospital management is ready to lie, cheat, and murder to perpetuate the conspiracy.

A gripping story and complex plot is one thing, but Palmer's descriptive writing style and careful revealing of characters and situations really fleshes out this very believable tale. For once, the words "terrifying" and "vivid" on the paperback cover seem justified. We enjoyed this as one of our best reads of the summer -- highly recommend!

Dr. Hedaya has written a good book. He gives hope to people on anti-depressants that they can return to an active life. I especially benefitted from exercise program, diet (5 meals/day, balance carbohydrate and protein in ratio 2:3, get rid of sugar, caffeine....in your diet ), and supplements omega-3 oils, B vitamins....

However, my word of caution - he gives statistics on his patients who have adrenal and thyroid gland problems..... I was given the same diagnosis after my first visit, as well as a host of other problems were diagnosed. After great expense and an enormous amount of testing, none of the original diagnoses panned out ie. my health improved from the basics - diet/exercise and some supplements. If you consider doctors on a spectrum of those who test too little to those who test too much, Dr. Hedaya is definitely on the far extreme of testing a lot (as far as my own experience).

So my suggestion, is to follow the suggested diet and exercise as well as the supplements for at least 6-12 months before you spend thousands of dollars on a host of expensive tests. For myself, it took about 12-18 months to return to my normal weight, energy levels ....

This is a useful book. Basically, this book is useful for two groups of people. First, people who are on antidepressants which are working OK but they are having trouble with side effects. Such as weight gain, sexual dysfunction, etc. Secondly, it has some useful insights for the person who is taking antidepressants, but the medications are not working up to par. Dr. Hedaya, MD has some real world suggestions for these two subgroups of people taking antidepressants.

I used some of the information in this book to inquire about getting tested for testosterone deficiency. Sure enough, my testosterone levels came back low in a formal blood test. Since, Ive been put on testosterone therapy by my internal medicine doctor. One thing the book doesnt go into though is the difference between secondary and primary testosterone deficiency. I think secondary testosterone deficiency is more common among depressed men and that sometimes requires a different treatment than just replacing testosterone directly. I owe that to this book, without reading this book I would never have thought of asking to get tested for low testosterone.

As a medical author who has preached and written about nutritional/orthomolecular medicine over the years, I was very, very impressed with Dr. Hedaya's book; finally, we have a bona-fide physician with powerful credentials (Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown U., I believe) who extolls the benefits---not only of super nutrition in the treatment of depression, but of the food allergy connection (long disputed for its relationship to mood but clinically understood by 'fringe' clinicians for 50 years); hypoglycemia (remember that syndrome? it hasn't gone anywhere!); thyroid function (many doctors prescribe standard thyroid tests which may often miss more subtle defects in that organs' function, but Dr. Hedaya explains exactly what tests are needed to uncover these subtle defects and their connection to depression); vitamins (he actually recommends B-complex in the 50mg. range along with B-12 injections when necessary); adrenal function, and many others. Hedaya even includes notes that your doctor can read regarding testing (kind of like he calling your doctor on your behalf to convey information which is not always put into practice). Very well done.

If there is a slight negative to the book, Hedaya doesn't really endorse St. John's Wort (but does includes fair reasons why there may be some concerns regarding its use and does mention a qualified distributor) or Sam-E (which I have read is fairly safe, and has passed some clinical scrutiny in the treatment of depression). Also, Hedaya doesn't appear to make any mention of 5-HTP (the modern-day tryptophan derivative which has been shown in a number of clinical studies, to naturally and therapeutically improve brain levels of serotonin---the chemical implicated in many depressions). Nor are the very serious side of effects of Paxil withdrawl dealt with in any substantial way (only to say gradual withdrawl is the rule of thumb). I have seen, for example, some studies suggesting that there are nutrient remedies involving glutathione transport(?) which can significantly reduce Paxil side-effects which many support groups on the web report as horrible.

Having said all of this, I would still highly recommend Hedaya's book, as 90% of it is excellent, timely, informative, and deals with the medicine/nutrient connection in a way I haven't seen since Durk Pearson's book, Life Extension, first appeared over 2 decades ago. Finally, highly credentialed physicians in the medical establishment are 'getting it.' Bravo!

Reading this book I got the sense that Calvin thinks he and a couple other like-minded people are really smart, you the reader have a modicum of intelligence, and the vast majority of people are dumb as posts. If you agree with him, you'll probably enjoy the book, because he does bring up some interesting points about both human evolution and the potential dangers of climate change. But especially in the second half of the book, when he goes into jeremiad mode about the imminent global catastrophe, his disdain for the majority of humanity becomes unbearable.

The book is also incredibly repetitive, and could have been at least 100 pages shorter without losing a thing. I wrote a longer review of it elsewhere; if I hadn't been planning to do that I never would have managed to finish the book at all. Even worse, it's written in a silly 'e-seminar' format--which means that Calvin starts every chapter with a sort of email header that also includes, for some reason, latitude and longitude information. The effect is as ridiculous as John Barth's text hypertext in _Coming Soon_. The format also might explain Calvin's chatty style, which might appeal to some people but which I found rather grating and demeaningly pedagogical after about twenty-five pages.

Among the many mysteries surrounding human evolution is the "kick start" our cognitive abilities achieved compared with the other primates. This rapid enhancement has been attributed to many causes, new tool use Calvin, whose neuroscience qualifications are impeccable, offers a fresh view. In so doing, he doesn't cease speculating on how we got to be how we are, but takes a further step in suggesting where we might be going. And how to avoid getting there. The human brain is neither an inevitable progression, nor a divine gift, he argues. It's the result of raindrops ceasing to fall on our heads. Climate, he argues, made us what we are. Equally, it may undo us.

Calvin sets the scene at the time when climate changes forced the shrinking of the forest cover in East Africa. Our barely upright ancestors, in coping with the changing environment, learned survival skills on the savannah, then spread out over the globe. During our migrations, various new climatic conditions were being established . The suture of Central America joining North and South America set new wind and current patterns around the globe. The resulting North Atlantic Current [the Gulf Stream] and the temperature and salinity exchanges in that ocean have proven a major factor in climate. Calvin examines what is known about these mechanisms and the impact of variations. The most significant new knowledge refutes the established idea that climate changes gradually. Sudden, wild "flips" of temperature, rainfall and snow cover are now seen as the norm, not as aberrations. Change isn't on the order of centuries, but in years.

Calvin's technique of presenting his ideas is as novel as his thesis. Each chapter is an "electronic seminar" with "lectures" and questions arriving for the reader's scrutiny from locations all over the globe. Calvin thus presents himself as a field investigator, relating what on-site researchers are revealing. And much, indeed, is being exposed for assessment. Records from Greenland ice and other sources indicate "chattering" patterns of weather change. These and other finds are related and discussed. And presented for the reader to ponder. If the text doesn't give you reason to pause and reflect, there are numerous striking photographs and diagrams to seize your attention. A Glossary and excellent Further Reading section complete a work of striking significance. If you delay reading this, you may find yourself having to don mittens to take it up. Read it NOW! [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Yes, as a few other reviewers have noted, this book is written in a rather eccentric style. That, however, was only a problem for me when I went looking for things I'd read and discovered the table of contents made no sense.

On the other hand, the writing is conversational and detailed, thorough and startling. This is one of those books "everybody should read," because the information in it - particularly in the last third - is so incredibly critical to the fate and future of the human race.

Calvin has done one of the best jobs I've seen of explaining how and why the Atlantic currents transport heat and salt - and what happens when they shut down, plunging the entire world into an ice age in as little as 3 to 12 years. (This isn't a just a future threat - it's also an observation of times past. Every ice age has started and ended in fewer than a dozen years!)

Calvin tells us in detail how Europe will be devastated by the next ice age, how our SUV usage today in North America is leading us right to it (and much sooner than most think), and - most amazingly - offers some specific suggestions about things that can be done to stop it (like daming up some fjiords in Greenland and dynamiting others).

Along the way, we also get a completely new view of human evolution, based in the whiplash environment humans survived for the past 200,000 years.

This book is brilliant, and I highly recommend it. Just be sure to mark up the pages as you read them, because that's the only way you'll be able to find things later when you try to explain it to your friends (as you will want to do!).

Ehrman goes on a investigative journey into the heart of the biblical texts to unearth evidence of quite extensive manipulation of the original text of the New Testament. Although much of this work is very detailed argumentation and goes far beyond the textual knowledge of the typical layperson it remains accessible. It's a compelling account of the textual history.

The finest chapter is that which deals with the initial environment of Christianity, the diversity of faiths present, and the struggle over an emerging orthodoxy not solidified until the fourth century. Explicating this, Ehrman provides an informative account of a particular portion of the early history of the church. He reviews the various church fathers, their writings, and their polemical attacks against their opponents. It should come as no surprise that the evidence of who these opponents actually were does not agree with the orthodox interpretation of them as sensual, deviant deceivers and idolaters. In many cases, there were honest differences of opinion and each group sought its own way of accommodating the writings of the new church and the Old Testament.

Each succeeding chapter deals with a different controversy. The lengthiest discussion is related to orthodox changes made to scripture regarding whether Jesus was the adopted Son of God, a very righteous man or the pre-existent image of God. A straight reading of the earliest gospel of Mark leads to the adoptionist conclusion. Especially troublesome was John's baptism of Jesus and the subsequent arrival of the spirit of God in bodily form and God's pronouncement of Jesus' son-ship. Besides this appearing in all three synoptic gospels, with the addition of Matthew's clever manipulation to ensure proper interpretation of the event, there are many instances where the mention of Jesus' earthly father Joseph has been changed to align with more orthodox beliefs. Ehrman provides an extensive discussion and defense of his conclusion that Luke's baptism pericope originally had the voice of God state "today I have begotten you", not simply "whom I have begotten" as currently appears in all bibles.

The remaining chapters deal with separationist, docetic, and patripassianist heresies. Separationists believe that Jesus and the Christ were separate beings, docetists that Jesus lacked a material body, and patripassianists that Jesus was the Father God Himself who had suffered, died, and risen. All are very interesting.

This may not be a good book for a layperson, unless you are highly interested in the textual history of the New Testament. For some, this may be too much parsing, and textual analysis. But, if you can get through it, it is extremely helpful and interesting knowledge.

This book is about one group of Christians in the 2nd and 3rd centuries who, writing before the canon had been set, fought heatedly against sects of Christians it considered heretical. This group - the 'proto-orthodox' - modified its scriptures to avoid alternative interpretations of Jesus, and in so doing, ironically corrupted its own sacred texts.

'Corruption' sounds negative, but it's a technical term. It just means that the original text has been modified. Ehrman is not trying to make swiss cheese out of the New Testament. He states that "by far the vast majority of [textual variants] are 'accidental'." But some of them have too much relevance to the intense theological disputes of the pre-canonical period to be random error.

The 4 heretical positions discussed are 1) adoptionism, 2) separationism, 3) doceticism, and 4) Patripassianism.

Adoptionism is the belief that Jesus was a man who was 'adopted' by God to carry out one of his plans. When God adopted a man, the man became a 'Son' only at that moment to the Father. When an adult David was crowned king, he was adopted by God. When Jesus is declared 'Son of God' at his baptism - it did NOT mean he was himself divine, although he certainly had a special relationship to God. Jesus was not divine- just a great man in God's eyes, chosen for a task.

Separationism is a Gnostic view that Jesus was a man, and the Christ was a divine spirit - and that at Jesus' baptism (again!) the Christ entered him, empowered him to accomplish miracles, and then left him on the cross (helps make sense of Mark 15:34). Jesus the man was thus separable from the Christ, a divine spirit.

Docetism is the view that Jesus only appeared to have a real, fleshly human body, but being God, really did not. Jesus' body is more like a phantom or temporary body, a rental. This sounds strange - but surely Jesus couldn't have an erection, or defecate? The discomfort we might feel here shows the docetic in all of us. Gnostics were VERY big on docetism - since they thought that the material realm was tainted and evil.

Patripassianism is the belief that the trinity is false, that there is only ONE god. So this entails that Yahweh HIMSELF was crucified, arrested, beaten, etc.

Most of the corruptions are surprisingly subtle and minor in appearance - most of them are a change in one or two words in a single passage. For example, changing a reference from reading 'Jesus' to 'Jesus Christ' was born in a manger affirms that Jesus was divine from BIRTH, that he was UNIFIED in his being as well. This one corruption could be used by orthodoxy to maintain an interpretation that resists adoptionist or separationist attack. .

But the four heresies are, after all, pretty simple to grasp. For a book that can be meticulous and involved in its argument, the basic ideas are straightorward. In fact, there are only 6 chapters - an intro, a chapter for each heresy, and a conclusion. Very simple organization. Each chapter has substantial footnotes that can be very interesting to read themselves, as well as sources for further information.

Ehrman's book is not dry, but it is detailed and involved in parts. I don't know New Testament Greek, but he frequently quotes Greek phrases with a translation. However, there are numerous cases where he does NOT translate, and that gets a bit rough. I had to reread perhaps 5 of his passages several times to get the flow of his argument. Once he sets it up, most of the corruptions are easy to see coming. In fact, sometimes it gets a little tedious. He presents an argument for each corruption, some of them truly fascinating, though. Many of them are speculative in nature, and he acknowledges that.

The most crucial class of corruptions are the ones that Ehrman thinks have made it into the canon. These he argues very carefully, and the context he provides is terrific. Some examples are 1) the adoptionist hints in Luke 3:22 (baptism again!), Jesus' bloody sweat (Luke 22:43-44), Luke's version of the Last Supper (22:19-20), Peter's visit to the tomb in Luke 24:12, and the title 'Son of God' in Mark 1:1.

The vast majority, however, of the corruptions he lists have NOT made their way into the modern bible, at least not the NSRV Oxford bible that I own. He gives his reasons for each of these in full.

Importantly, none of the corruptions themselves were carried out in a systematic way - the orthodox church never seemed to have a policy of corruption. Ehrman is careful not to attribute any malicious intention to the orthodox scribes, as well. Rather, it comes off that a scribe here and there would see the potential misreading, and then insert his own modification to 'clarify' what (he) thought was obviously already there in the text.

Interestingly, some of the corruptions themselves cause further problems! A corruption that helps emphasize Jesus' humanity, and thereby removes a docetic threat - can also open the text up to adoptionist readings. One can't help see the tighrope walk involved for the orthodox - and Ehrman hints that this refusal to yield to either side's heresy forced the orthodox sect to embrace that paradoxical understanding of Jesus' nature - all God AND all human, one god BUT three 'aspects.' (This helped explain to me, at least, the bizarre Trinity. It's always seemed like a construct - trying to have one's theological cake and eat it too.) Learning to spot those ancient heresies helped me read the bible more carefully. Far from being a unified, flawless block of dead doctrine, the New Testament now brims with the tensions and questions of its overlapping and also competing Christological perspectives. The bible is a complex collection of writings - Ehrman's book helped the New Testament become much more of a living book to me.

The author argues that the parties which triumphed in defining Christianity at Nicea and Chalcedon (the proto-orthodox) "improved" the not-yet-stabilized canon of the New Testament in the second and third centuries A.D. to counter those Christians whom they considered heretics. Using the proto-orthodox views of Separationist, Docetic, Adoptionist and Patripassianist beliefs, the author studies the earliest existing copies of what became the New Testament for clues to the controversies and their effect on what was actually written in these copies.

Christology is the center of this study. What the heretics believed in opposition to what the proto-orthodox believed about the nature of Christ are the only parts of the developing canon which are scrutinized. Scrutinized is perhaps too broad a word. The author puts the various extant texts under an electron microscope of scholarly inquiry. Textual variants, external attestations, transcriptional probabilities, and intrinsic probabilities of what parts were "original" and what parts are "improvements" are culled with a fine toothed comb. Have a good Greek grammar handy because many of the arguments hinge on a verb tense, word substitutions, genders, possessives and antecedents. I have no Greek so many of the proofs of these arguments were beyond me.

Did second and third century scribes change what became the New Testament as a result of Christological controversies within the early Church? It would appear so based on the evidence presented in this book. The author is throughout charitable to these individual scholars of long ago, recognizing that he can only guess at the motivations of these anonymous men of the pen. The evidence that they made what was written in the developing canon "say" what they already knew the words to "mean" is compelling. Besides giving insight into how these texts were transmitted to us, the book also provides a potted history of the various heretical controversies of these early centuries. I found it to be a hard read on a fascinating topic.

Okay: Y2K didn't happen. Got that? There was no "Y2K Crisis." Civilization as we know it did not come to an end at one second past midnight on the morning of January 1, 2000. So if you got into an argument with someone who said it wouldn't happen, and maybe suggested that his doubts were due to a limited mental capacity, or that he was simply too lazy to consult the latest "information" on the subject, then perhaps you owe that person an apology, because nothing that was predicted to accompany the arrival of the year 2000 due to the absence of two decimal places in the year fields of programs and operating systems EVER happened! NOTHING! I know because I was there, along with about 6 billion other people. And many of us monitored the progression of the new millennium as it began at the International Date Line and moved west through Asia, Australia, Europe, to where I was then living in the Chicago area, and beyond. Our public utilities continued to function, our computers continued to work, and our nuclear missiles remained in their silos. People on life-support systems in hospitals didn't turn up dead, refrigeration systems didn't fail, and our water supplies remained safe. In short: nothing happened. NOTHING! Even though virtually every important industry in our global economy admitted that the "Y2K Problem" was still years away from being completely solved, and that the "Y2K Bug" would still permeate our systems for quite some time, NOTHING HAPPENED. The supposed "bug" that was going to be responsible for the "problem" that would inevitably lead to a "crisis" that would send us back to the Dark Ages while perhaps triggering Armageddon NEVER happened! Was there ANY result from this Y2K fiasco? No. Instead, the ultimate mega-event of all recorded history became known for primarily one thing: that nothing happened. We waited for something to happen. We looked for something to happen. January 1 went by. January 2 went by. January itself went by, and through February and March of 2000 we still thought something might happen, but nothing did. Nothing, that is, except that for a certain cadre of unscrupulous authors, such as the ones who edited and wrote this book, the party was over, and there was no more money to be made off uninformed and/or gullible readers from THIS particular scare scenario. For them, it was time to cash-out. Live to write another day. Take the money and run. I hope they invested it all in Enron.

about the manufacturinng problem towards the millennium bu

The author presents an all encompassing look at the Y2K problem. It relates to readers at all levels. This year's 'must read' book!

This should have been a CD-ROM or DVD product. The stills did nothing to inspire or educate me on motion graphic techniques. Nice philosophic text though.

I read this in a sushi restaurant, or rather perused it. The brief bits of text that capped each segment seemed ... inconsequential. Nice ideas at times, but most weren't developed. The design was great, well worth a few hours attention, but better to borrow than to buy. Cinematic works can rarely be broken down to key frames, but the compilers of this book did a good job of that, capturing the essence of the spot (or at least why they were excited by it) in a half dozen shots. I would have loved a VCD or DVD with the book, but no such luck.

I'm not sure what I expected, but I was certainly glad I didn'tbuy it.

'Pause' takes several commercials and displays roughly16-20 frames of each one. The advantage is that most of thesecommercials aren't available to one audience (the USA, for example).

Yes, it's a neat looking, well-designed, oversized thing to hold.There WERE some inspiring things in there. However, in my opinionit's NOT a $35 dollar book. It makes a nice first impression, but inthe end it felt like a very high-end, $20 design industry magazine.It should have been priced as such.