effect

I was hoping for an accessible, easily understood explanation of the Buddhist take on the meaning of life. Instead I first got a very complex analysis of Buddhism which did not adequately prepare me for the transcibed speeches of the Dalia Lama which followed. Maybe I'm not smart enough to grasp Buddhism. It certainly seems like this tape was not produced for the novice but for the more advanced student of Buddhism. If so, the tape cover did not warn me of that.

While I can sympathize with "a reader" on the fact that this book is in some instances somewhat esoteric, it is nonetheless a helpful text. The Dalai Lama has plenty of books out there that are less dense, I would suggest "An Open Heart" or "How To practice" for anyone who has problems absorbing the contents of this particular work. I will also make the point that Tibetan Buddhism is not ALL of Buddhism, and if you have trouble identifying with it I would suggest searching for other traditions you may more easily identify with. I practice Zen, but I can say also that I find a lot of value in the Dalai Lama's words in pretty much everything I've to date read by him. He's a magnificent spiritual mentor and friend to us all.

The Meaning of Life is a comprehensive, yet likewise somewhat confusing, glimpse into the amazing philosophical thought of Tenzin Gyatso. He deals a lot with the idea of metaphysics here and it's true, if you are not somewhat familiar with some basic Buddhist concepts, you may have a difficult time taking much in the realm of that which is beneficial from this book. He uses the Wheel of Life as a centerpiece for all that stems off in form of philosophy in this work, explaining how humans are often trapped by their own selfish thinking and desires. That part is hopefully not very hard for any of us to understand. It's sort of like 3 + 3 = 6. Simple math. I myself having practiced Korean Zen for quite some years now must admit, however, that I cannot fully grasp everything that is written here. But it nevertheless is an engaging work that one goes back to reading over and over again gaining new and fresh insights. So if you're a novice, yeah I might agree this is not the best of books as far as an introduction. But it's a great book to have hanging around to spiritually grow. So I recommend this book to everyone, but am aware that it's probably been designed for those more accustomed to this line of thought. Great book, though. I hope you enjoy it.

As with the other books of the Dalai Lama I have read, this book combines difficult and obscure teachings with the simplicity of the everyday. The book consists of the text of a lecture series the Dalai Lama gave in London in 1984, before he received the Nobel Prize. The title of the book together with its subtitle "Buddhist perspectives on cause and effect" give some idea of its breadth.

The first two lectures in the book, together with Professor Jeffery Hopkins's introduction discuss the fundamental Buddhist doctrine of Dependent Origination. The discussion is based upon an exposition of a famous Tibetan painting of the Wheel of Existence which is beautifully reproduced, in whole and in a number of details following page 40. Turn to the painting before beginning to read the book and refer to it while reading both Hopkins and the Dalai Lama.

The Doctrine of Dependent Origination teaches the both the impernanence and interrelationship of things we take in our everyday lives as substantial. It talks about the pervasive effect of ignorance and its immediate consequences, lust and hatred, in poisoning our lives and attitudes. It offers an antidote twoards breaking the wheel of selfishness in the doctrine of non-self.

If this sounds obscure, it is. In a famous Sutra in the Pali canon, the Buddha rebukes his disciple Ananda when Ananda thinks he understands the teaching. The Dalai Lama presents the doctrine not as a dispositive treatment, which can't be done, but to stimulate reflection and meditation by the reader.

Following the discussion of Dependent Origination, there are almost equally difficult discussions of the Buddhist doctrine of Karma (causality and intentionality) and discussions of specifically Tibetan Tantric practices.

Interlaced with the specifically Buddhist doctrinal discussions are discussions of the goal of the doctrines which the Dalai Lama describes (page 34) as "to tame one's mental continuum-- to become nonviolent." This in turn is divided into two levels: altruism, or helping others, and, perhaps more broadly, doing no harm. According to the Dalai Lama (page 35) "The chief quality of a buddha is great compassion; this is why it is appropriate to take refuge in a buddha."

As always with the Dalai Lama, his goal is to teach and not to convert. He seems somewhat skeptical in this book with the rush of Westerners to adopt Tibetan Buddhism which, he points out, is a form of Buddhism adopted to the specific culture of Tibet rather than to Western culture. Although Tibetan Buddhism does not recognize a creator God, he urges those people comfortable with their own religions to adhere to them as proper sources of spiritual realization and inner peace. For those unable to adopt any religion, (those committed to Western secularism) he urges reflection and self-understanding as a means to end suffering.

Similarly, the Dalai Lama emphasizes that the Buddha taught different people in different ways depending on their background and their readiness for religious teachings. Many people, particularly those in the West, must find their path through life in the everyday workaday world rather than mediatating in a forest. The Dalai Lama recognizes and encourages people to work through to their salvation in a way appropriate to and consistent with their individual situation. Wise advice.

This is not one of the Dalai Lama's easier books to read. But it will stay with the careful reader. The painting of the Wheel of Dependent Origination is well reproduced, Professor Hopkins's introduction is valuable, and the book has a good bibliography for those wishing to pursue sources further. The teachings may not make the reader a Tibetan Buddhist; indeedmthat is not their intention. They may, however, bring some guidance and insight to the open reader.

The book No Effect by Daniel Hayes was an excellent book. It was about a very confused 13 year old boy named Tyler McCallister in the 8th grade. He goes out for the schools varsity wrestling team when he's only in 8th grade, soon after that his best friend Lymie joins the team with him who is also and eigth grader. When Tylers Earth science teacher had collapsed and died in school she had to be replaced. The new Earth science teacher was Ms. Williams, Soon as Tyler set eyes on here he fell in love. He started dissing all his friends just so he could get to science class early as possible and stay after as long as possible. He would help her with cleaning and things to do around the class and obey her very well. The wrestling coach who was very mean and strict later on got a back injury while showing the kids a mountain climber. He was replaced with a young man named Chuckie, also Tylers next door neighboor. Tyler worked out really hard so he could impress Ms. Williams who was going Tylers first match. He fell in love with her so much he asked her to his Thanksgiving Day dinner. Chuckie came along too. They were allowwed to bring a guest. Little did Tyler know that Chuckie was dating the womend of his dreams. This made Tyler very depressed but it turns out ok in the end. If you want to learn more of what happened, read the book its excellent.

No Effect is a very interesting book. The main character is the best part of the book. The things he does in his book keeps the reader reading. His love of wanting to become atop contender is amazing. This is my favorite book that I've read. I actually wanted to keep reading once I started. The author explained the book well the way he wrote it. I think this book lets me know that if you work hard you can accomplish anything. The main character shows heart in this book. He pushes himself to accomplish things that are the best thing I like about that character.

In the book No Effect The Charactor Tyler is a Young boy in the ninth grade that signs up for wrestling. He soon finds that it's not what he expected. For Tyler every time life starts to go good something bad always happends. Soon Tyler finds himself inlove with his science teacher Miss Williams, but he finds a shocking secret out about his teacher. I enjoyed his book. To find the secret you should read No Effect.

This is not really a "how to deal with kids and divorce" book, but a personal memoir of the two authors and their post-divorce situations. It's a good read - particularly the harrowing story about how Nancy's ex-husband abducted her children and took them across the world to Australia. But it is NOT a guidebook. I also was bothered by the fact that Karen handled her parenting in what I thought was a very selfish way. If I recall correctly, she moved him away from his father after the divorce, and then each time the child settled in to a town, with hobbies and relationships, she decided - for no compelling reason - to move someplace else.

I have not only read Karen and Nancy's book, but I have also attended a seminar presented by both authors. I am shocked at the negative review given by the lady from Fla. Karen's book was from the heart ( as was Nancy's) The bash that she gave Karen Todd was shocking. After reading the many times that Karen selfishly let her son go for him to experience the unconditional love from both of his parents was anything but selfish. It was a beautiful story that had coping skills that not only work with divorce children but with children that have moved away to college,gone to summer camp, or moved to a new school. The bonding and re-bonding chapter was a fantastic guideline in helping me understand the adjusting that children go through in change. When I last heard Karen speak, she was proud of her son acommplishments as a lawyer, father, and member of a community. She obviously did something within the 'guidlines' Karen Todd has a heart that opens to all families of divorce, and she has a wonderful mission. I highly recommend both of their loving stories to all families. Thank-you Amazon for having such a caring book available to all.

In a divorce, many people are effected. Parents, children, grandparents, aunts and uncles and friends. Karen discusses ways in which we can all cope with the realities of our lives after divorce. There is hope and practicle ways to create a happy reality after a divorce.

...His assessment of manuscript practices is enhanced by a vast fund of knowledge in classical and medieval history. Parkes has always had an unpretentious way of relating the somewhat esoteric points of palaeography to the wider currents of reading and writing in his chosen time periods. He is able to make you see that grammar and literacy in pre-Reformation Europe were very precious attainments, and that the tradition of classical and later monastic education involved highly sophisticated learning techniques for very good reasons. Highly recommended for the closet pedant with a taste for the lost art of reading!

The ancient Greeks and Romans wrote without punctuation to interrupt their texts. That was left to the reader to interpret the places to pause, stop, or otherwise divide the text.

As Latin grew to be a second language in the Middle Ages, scribes began to give their readers more assistance in interpretation - thus our Western punctuation became varied and prolific.

The invention of the printing press standardized and froze our choice of punctuation.

The author does an amazing job of showing by example how the needs of the both the readers & writers of each period developed into the selection of marks which we use today.

The illustrations of manuscripts being in the back of the book rather than interspersed in the text makes for some shuffling, but the illustrations also carry their own clear descriptions of the particular punctuation practice which they illuminate.

English translations of most of the Latin text used as examples are thoughtfully provided.

I wish we still had use of the rhetorical question mark to indicate a question not requiring an answer!

Parkes' book is *the* standard history of punctuation in Western writing. It is written by a first-rate scholar who has spent a career studying the original manuscripts, and tells an excellent story, if you're interested in such things. As you might expect from such a specialized subject, the presentation is fairly academic, but if you want to understand how modern conventions of punctuation developed, this is the book to read.

This is actually an excellent book --- that promises the eye image used as an example throughout the book is available from Compuserve or AOL. It is not. Without the image the book is frustrating and of relatively little practical value.

Easy to follow and lots of fun but very frustrating to be without the photo.

I agree. Where's the photo? It's supposed to be available for download from AOL but I can't find it!

I read this book because I wanted a better understanding of the whole global climate change debate. On the plus side, the author does a good job of explaining the difficulty in determining if the climate is changing. He convinced me that global warming is occurring. The weight of the evidence appears to be overwhelming in this regard, although it's not clear if it's just short term variation or the beginning of a long-run trend. The author discusses how a scientific model shows a human cause for warming, but I'm not entirely convinced. But the models seem to be improving rapidly, and it may not be long before the evidence is overwhelming. My biggest complaint is that the author did not place human influences into context. For example, how does the release of CO2 from burning fossil fuels compare to natural releases such as forest fires? How does deforestation affect global warming? If the planet is warming, doesn't that imply more plants, including plankton, which convert CO2 into oxygen, thus offsetting the impact? The author mentions that quantification of the carbon cycle is not well understood, but an understanding of it is critical to understand global warming. The author suggests that consequences of inaction could be severe, but he uses mostly anecdotal information and speculation because scientific information is lacking. Quite frankly, I'm not convinced that action is necessary. Science does not seem far enough along to warrant changing behavior to fend off problems that may never occur. And if the models are right and global warming will cause serious consequences I expect them to occur gradually. I have faith that future generations will be in a much better position to deal with these problems than we are today.

Everybody talks about the weather and lately a lot of people are convinced that it is changing. William Stevens is a NY Times journalist and he has been following the weather for over a decade now. He has spoken to all the major meteorologists and if anybody is entitled to talk about the weather, it's Mr Stevens. His book is thorough but never boring. He has his own views, as the title shows, but he is never out of focus. If you want to know about the state-of-the-art in weather-science, here is a book that is accessible and gives enough food for your own thoughts.

This survey of people, weather and climate changes examines questions behind today's climatic forces, considering how human actions have contributed to climate and contrasting scientific reality with beliefs about the climate. An involving, revealing account armchair readers will appreciate.

No matter how many experiments are made that disproof the Mozart Effect there will always be parents who want a fast easy way of controlling or making their kids more "intelligent". Someday someone is going to market a sugar pill to do that, and make millions.

It's the fast-food approach to life. And you as a parent are going to lose for it.

The old fashion way, giving of your time and caring by sharing and personnaly teaching is no longer in vogue.

This book will make me a smarter parent. I am amazed at how this book blends the practical, the scientific and the artistic into common sense. I am not a fan of Classical music, but this book has helped me understand more about the healthy qualities of music.

Mr. Campbell gives me the evidence I need to show my school district that music classes must be included in every child's schoolday. The book is well referenced and gives many ways to help children improve their minds with music. This book sings the heart, the brain and the body of music!

This book is outstanding. As a parent and nearly a grand parent, as well as a music therapist, I welcome this clear and creative book. There is no doubt you can use the Mozart Effect in your home the way Campbell defines it. It is more than just a scientific study, it is about knowing how to nuture a child and a family with music . Campbell is neither elitest nor arrogant. He inspires and informs. All types of music are included and the book takes a step by step, age by age, approach to brain and body development. He shows us that The Mozart Effect goes back to research in France over forty years ago and continues in centers throughout the world today to help children with ADD, speech problems and dyslexia.

As a music therapist, I hope every family will use this book. It can improve listening and communication. It can inspire us to look at a much bigger picture in child development. Thanks Don Campbell for doing your homework so well.

I am a big Paul Shepard fan but this book was a disappointment. The book starts off well investigating the thesis that natural selection has left the human mind with a set series of developmental events that must take place between childhood and adulthood by which the child comes to understand its place in both the human community and the natural world. This sequence was built into human psychology during hundred of thousands of years of living as hunter-gatherers. When we adopted large-scale agriculture a mere 10.000 years ago this sequence was radically disrupted as the sphere of the childs interaction with both the naturl world around it and it human community was contracted drastically. Many of the ills of modern life stem from this disruption.
Shepard presentation of his basic thesis is compelling. But he then goes on to psycho-historical explorations of how this disruption takes different shapes in different historical epochs. This constitutes the bulk of the book. The psycho-history pieces I found unsatisfying, full of very broad generalizations about the psychological effect of various cultural trends. There is no way to tell what is just psychobabble and what is not. If you are new to Shepard I would recommend the Tender Carnivore instead, or for a nice summary of his whole line of thought Coming Home to the Pleistocene.

For those interested in studies of western culture's destructive relationship with nature, this treatise from Paul Shepard is certainly a rewarding read, though I recommend it with some reservations. Shepard starts with the Mother Earth concept and takes it to great psychological lengths, then applies this psychology to all of mankind. It's certainly a radical thesis, but it's worth thinking about. In what he calls variously ontogenetic regression, unaltered immaturity, and other labels, Shepard makes the case that humans have been torn from their true mother, the Earth, as the unfortunate outcome of modern civilization and social constructs. Thus, society behaves in pathological ways similar to what can be seen from children who are torn away from their mothers before the onset of maturity. Therefore, our society's attitude toward nature is perpetually immature, underdeveloped, and undernourished, with all the destructiveness and disrespect that results from such a dysfunctional childhood.

While this thesis has its various strengths and weaknesses that can be discovered by the reader, there's not enough meat to it to round out an entire book, even a very short one like this. Shepard's most glaring weakness is in psychology, as he offers little more than extremely basic Freud (with the associated sexism and dubious ideas on infancy and childhood), and then makes unconvincing attempts to extend this psychology to society as a whole. Meanwhile, Shepard's writing gets buried in academic dogma that is a real slog for non-professors who don't speak in non-stop technical jargon all day. Watch for arcane terms like methectic, kerygmatic, neoteny, or autochthonous; along with brain-drain sentences like "...amputate and cauterize pubertal epigenesis because they would further transform the relationship of the infant to its mother." Add all this to Shepard's rather self-righteous speculations and you are in for an exasperating read, although the basic thesis of this book definitely offers food for thought.

This is a really impressive, powerful and inspiring book, which investigates neurotic behavior of the individual and collective societies as a result of alienation and separation fom our natural impulses, nature itself and our "co inhabitants" of the planet earth.Those interested in further investigating these themes are advised to check out John Zerzan's excellent "Against Civilization"(surely a pun on Huysmans classic portrayal of dissatisfied and empty urban neurosis, "Against Nature"), a collection of essays devoted to the "wrong thnking" and negative effects of civilization and the disastrous implications of man's separation from nature. In a similar vein, his "Elements of Refusal" should find a sympahetic readership amongst those impressed by Shepard's work. Gregdada from Korea.

As someone who has worked with Photoshop a bit, I found the techniques the author uses to be a good idea starter for my own work. The book has a number of beautiful photos and is fun to flip through.

There are plenty of other manuals out there if you want to learn the basics of Photoshop. This will not do that. What it can do, and what it did for me, is help you develop a keener eye for recognizing the possibilities in image enhancement--how to realistically insert subjects between background and foreground, outline delicate items like whiskers, and merge subjects that have different perspectives.

It also shows work in other software programs like Kai's Power Tools, Color Efex Pro and Knockout.

I will keep it short. The book has a basic foundationu kodak l for photoshop and other image editing software. The information in this book is the equivalent of ten Imaging books in one. The benefit that can be derived from this book is that it shows what alotof the filters do. I masterd it and then had my pictures printed At Kellards Photo(www.kellards.com)and got beautiful Kodak prints for only .29 cents.

This book showed me how I could use Photoshop to manipulate my digital photographs to remove errors, enhance quality, and make creative composites.

Photoshop was hard for me to learn and this book's examples helped me get over the threshold. I used Jim's techniques and found that I really could do "digital darkroom" fixes. I cut a butterfly from an uninteresting background, pasted it onto a palmetto frond, and made my first "realistic" composite. Then I increased the color saturation and it's a knockout image! I printed an 8x10 and even my wife thinks it looks great.

From the book's examples, I can see there are lots of other ways to improve photographs. Now that I have passed the Photoshop threshold, I plan to experiment to see what works best for me. I'm also going to be taking new kinds of photographs, such as "background" shots, that I wouldn't have considered before.

The book also has sections on creative photography, to make composite images that are surrealistic. Examples show how to turn a normal photograph into what looks like a painting, or combine multiple photographs to create an imaginary scene. Some of the results are beautiful, such as the mosaic portrait on page 113. I plan to play with these ideas and incorporate some into my personal style.

Other books I have looked at try to explain the functions of Photoshop. This book showed me how to use Photoshop in very specific ways to improve my photographs. It made it easy for me to get started. The examples showed why I might want to use a certain Photoshop function and how to do it.

When I started digital photography it amazed me, first because it was so fast and then because the printouts were of such high quality. Now I can see a whole new creative possibility in my hobby.

Great book!

This book has a lot of typos and it is quite confusing if some equations are correct or wrong.I would not recommend this book for a graduate course if i were the professor.

This book is quite good as an overview of III-V transport devices. As mentioned in other reviews, it has several typos (why I rated it a 4/5). To sum up, the explanations are solid, but I would not blindly use the formulae without first checking the derivation.

This is a popular book for introducing III-V semiconductor devices, and I think this will be the best one for beginners. However, the author can't put too much information in this book due to the restriction of volume. Thus, sometimes this book is also not very clear in some details, but this is still a very good book!