This is absolutely the best fictional work about slavery and emancipation I have ever read--eat your heart out, Toni Morrison.

Although Hersey offers very little explanation about how the world got to be the way it was in the book (how would a nation ravaged by smallpox be able to successfully prosecute a war?), he spares no detail concerning how white slaves could fit into Chinese culture.

And yet, the book is not prophetic; it is simply a good read for anyone who is interested in a fresh look at an old issue.

I thought this was the best book I've ever read. It's a little long, but it's worth reading. It's well written, it's interesting, and it is realistic. It's a story that seems like it could really happen, and it makes you stop and think what you would do in a situation like White Lotus finds herself in. John Hersey makes you feel like you're in the story, or listening to White Lotus sitting right across from you telling you her story!

This book will touch you emotionally and intellectually. White Lotus is a view of the future that provides the reader with insights into slavery and the black experience in America. The machines and technology once a part of world culture are gone. American civilization as we know it is gone. A young white girl is captured from her Arizona enclave and marched to the sea. She's transported as a slave to the east to serve the now powerful Chinese. The story is beautifully written and reads well on all levels. The heroine's many experiences mirror the history of the African-American experience leading up to the civil rights movement. White Lotus should be required for reading and discussion in schools and deserves to be reprinted.

Other than the original three books this is one of the best in the series. The later volumnes are not nearly as informative as some of the earlier works. This one is full of clear and concise guidance. You can read all of these books over and over and learn something new each time.

One book, that if you understand it (in your mind and heart) will change your life for the whole eternity.

Para aqueles que buscam a Verdade, a Luz, O Caminho é mostrado com simplicidade através dos ensinamentos de Saint Germain. O volume 17 da Série"The I Am Discourses" - Discursos de AYAM , continua a mostrar a todos como alcançar a Graça, como se tornam Um adepto da Grande Fraternidae Branca, como ser vitorioso no caminho. Portanto, amigos, buscadores da Luz, estudantes da verdade... não desanimem, leiam, estudem, selecionem com mestria as fontes de ensinamento e saber, e afimamos com certeza, ser esta série de livros, publicados por Saint Germain Press, o porto mais seguro e verdadeiro para o iniciante. "Hosana, Bendito seja o Senhor que abriu o Sétimo Sêlo permitindo, assim, a Terra entrar numa Era de Paz e Felicidade". Obrigado.... Riva - Belo Horizonte

A great book to learn about healing and channeling your energies in a more positive way. The book has many 'gems' in terms of ideas, thoughts, and basic healthly, positive principles of living -- for the novice to the expert person who is on a spiritual quest to a more fulfilling life. Buy it!

The colors & tones of this deck are SO different from any other products I have purchased/reviewed. A photo of the stone is imposed upon the painted artwork. The 6 stones unique to this set are: Earth Keeper crystal, iolite, apatite, shiva lingam, star quartz, & boulder opal. The division by elements/areas is similar to The Crystal Ally Cards & the Crystal Journey Cards, but is a completely "new" system of association. To my knowledge, there is no other deck so precisely built around a specific discipline. The skandhas are from sacred geometry: cube, icosahedron, (merkabah)star tetrahedron, octahedron & dodecahedron. The lotus blossom on each of the 8 cards per elemental "suit" are that chakra's color: red, orange, yellow, *emerald, *rose, blue, indigo, purple. (note: the heart chakra uses these 2*) There are 10 readings/layouts.

I love this book and card deck! Of all the books I've read about crystals, this is the most comprehensive book I've seen! The card deck is great for readings! This book links crystals to the metaphysical and physical parts of human beings in a way that makes so much sense. Now I really understand why crystals affect us.

And the cards are great! Whenever I get a cold or feel down about something, I just get out the deck of cards and give myself a reading from the "Jewels of the Lotus." The reading is always right on track - I come away with insights into the situation and then I make progress by using what I learned.

This is a long overdue book and card deck - it is definitely on my gift list for my favorite people!

-Gena Parkhurst Chicago, IL

In high school, kids spend time reviewing the Declaration of Independence and learning its meaning. This book goes well beyond that to inspect the thoughts and ideas that were prevalent in the late 18th century and how they influenced the document. Becker goes into great detail about natural rights theory according to John Locke and explores the ins and outs of its implications. This to me was the strongest and most enjoyable part of the book. He also explores the thoughts and ideas that were circulating Britain at the time.

Building on this foundation, he weaves a tale as to why certain things were worded as they were (like Britain being run as a ruthless tyrant), and why certain things were left out altogether (like slavery). He also closely examines the changes that took place in the drafts and attributes them to individuals who proofread Jefferson's draft. I really could have done without his granularity in this area.

In all, this was a fascinating read. For those of you who want to extend your knowledge beyond the simple presentation of the document you received in high school, I highly recommend buying this book!

I have read this book, off and on, several times. It never ceases to amaze me. I tend to be a controversialist and rely upon this book often to help those who seem convinced that the Founding Fathers were of a particular religious persuasion. While foundationally on a personal level this may be true, in general they bowed down to a higher power: Reason. Yet this was not new to them nor were their political theories. Their roots came from somewhere else and that somewhere else was from the European soil they had left.

Becker does an awesome job dissecting the Declaration and its influences primarily from Jefferson through Locke. The natural rights philosophy chapter is awesome. This book is over seventy five years old and its arguments have been revisited and even countered but the book is still foundationally necessary for anyone who seeks to study the Declaration of Independence. In terms of studying the Declaration, there is before Becker's book and there is after.

There are many revealing insights and oddities that appear when Becker displays the lines that have been cut from the original draft (e.g. notice there is no mention of slavery in the final version; the reasons for its excision are included in the book). These little tidbits opened my eyes a bit to the relatively benign history of this document that I had been taught. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing so have a little fun and check this book out.

Carl L. Becker's book on the Declaration of Independence first appeared nearly eighty years ago, and yet it is still a valuable and stimulating study of its subject. It is dated now, for two large reasons:

First, Becker wrote before the revolution in studying the history of ideas, and thus unavoidably predates the close-focus examination of the controversy between Great Britain and her American colonies in the years from 1765 to 1776. Two recent books should be read alongside Becker's monograph -- Pauline Maier's AMERICAN SCRIPTURE: MAKING THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE (New York: Knopf, 1997; Vintage paperback, 1998), and John Phillip Reid, CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, abridged ed. (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995).

Second, Becker focuses on Jefferson as *the* author of the Declaration, neglecting that he was actually the draftsman selected by the Continental Congress and his colleagues within the drafting committee. Thus, the Declaration -- no matter what Jefferson said about it in later life -- was not primarily a window into his own thinking about natural rights and democracy, but rather the final statement by Congress as to the reasons for breaking ties with Britain. To be sure, later generations have read it as an expression of Jefferson's mind -- rather than of "the American mind," as he put it. But, as Maier shows in AMERICAN SCRIPTURE, Jefferson's thinking was nowhere near as unique or advanced on these subjects as later hero-worshipping biographers have suggested.

In particular, as Maier has shown, the age-old dispute about whether Jefferson was or was not influenced by Locke is somewhat beside the point. Even so, Becker's fine book is indispensable for deciding whether we should read the Declaration through Lockean or Jeffersonian lenses, and whether we should regard it as a codification of American aspirations or as a hypocritical catalogue of principles we cannot live up to.

R. B. Bernstein, adjunct professor of law, New York Law School

One of the poems quoted in this book, which begins the Ninth Chapter, goes in part as follows: "All night long / I cannot sleep. / Rising and sitting, / I think a thousand thoughts... / Only by observing / the state where there is no birth / can I remove these teardrops / from the wet sleeves of my robe." These eight simple lines form the essence of the message of this book, based upon the 1995 experiences of a Canadian Zen practitioner, Jim Bedard, who was diagonosed with acute myeloide leukemia (AML) and given ten days to live. It is the story of how he used his Zen practice to bring himself into full contact with the inevitability of his own death while at the same time having to deal with painful medical treatments which included a bone marrow transplant and life taxing chemotherapy.

While the experiences written about in this book explain how this one man used his exposure and grounding in the spiritual practice of Zen Buddhism to help him get through his unthinkable physical ordeal, the alert reader will notice that spiritual practice, whatever it may by, can not only help us transcend such trials in our lives, but also help us to understand and experience our practice in a deeper and more profound way such that it becomes a life transforming event in itself.

What Jim Bedard's experience of fighting AML taught him and what he struggled to understand were the very truths he had worked with in Zen, only this time in a life-threatening, three dimensional way. At one point he admits that, "Each of us had to do the work of awakening to our true Mind by ourselves; no one was going to do it for us."

He was in essence put up against a solid wall, his own mortality, and asked to look inside himself for the key to his release. The possibility of death has a way of focusing the mind that no other circumstance in life can match. And Jim Bedard succeeded. He found his strength in the source of his survival, and lived to tell the tale so that others might also find that same strength within themselves. You don't have to be a Buddhist or know anything in particular about Zen to enjoy and learn something from this book. Its lessons transcend specific religion. Though if you are Buddhist it should definitely enhance your practice.

There are many moments of insight provided in this account, which seems to move along at a fairly brisk pace despite it morbid subject matter. One of the more telling moments came little more than two weeks into Jim's ordeal when he writes, "With serious illness one is quickly stripped naked for all to see. The different masks we hide behind dissolve. All I identified with as my self was breaking up and dispersing. I was experiencing the truth of the Buddha's teaching of impermanence firsthand....I had no guarantee of a future, my past identity had been eradicated, and the present was demanding one hundred percent of my attention." These experiences Jim writes about of facing a terminal illness are universal in their nature and accessible by anyone who is human.

As he struggled with the distracting aspects of his illness, Jim, in his intense examination of his own mind in search of mental relief from the physical strain, inevitably came upon an epiphany. "The leukemia was there, I felt, to heal another, much deeper sickness that I would never have recognized without its help: the sickness of pain-producing behavior and habit patterns stemming from seeds that were planted lifetimes ago. The reason for this illness was not a mystery to me. Like all Buddhists, I clearly understood the answer to the question, What did I do to deserve this? It was obvious: my own karma brought me to this point."

Having come to this insight was only the beginning of his journey in overcoming the illness that was wracking his once fine body. From this point he was put into the position, as he put it, of having to walk a tightrope between life and certain death. It wasn't an easy walk, and it was this walk that the remainder of the book describes in great detail. For anyone who is going through such an experience or for those who are in a position to support another who is, this book will be a comfort and source of inspiration.

The book endeavors to provide answers to the tough questions that come to the mind of the sufferer in such a situation, while at the same time showing one way in which such hardships in life can be successfully faced and overcome. For Jim Bedard his saving grace can be summed up in one section where he writes, "For me each time fear would raise its head, I would face it straight on and ask myself again and again, 'Who is aware of this fear? Who am I really?' It was this constant looking into Mind that was my saving grace. The penetrating and liberating practice of introspection allowed me refuge from the maelstrom around me." Such introspection is at the heart of the way of all true religious practice.

Mr. Bedard offers an inspirational account of his battle with acute myeloid leukemia. He weaves the story of his illness into the context of his faith, Zen Buddhism. Mr. Bedard clearly explains how Buddhist practice allowed him to confront his disease and eventually find relief. "Lotus in the Fire" is not a purely religious account, however. These experiences transcend any one religious conviction, and anyone who has experienced pain or seen a loved one fight with illness and death will identify closely with the characters. I was riveted by the story told in these pages, and was unable to put the book down until I had reached its satisfactory closure. Absolutely, READ THIS BOOK!

In "Lotus in the Fire," Jim Bedard tells the story of his battle with leukemia with the lightness, simplicity and humor of a gifted storyteller and with the depth and insight gained from long years of Zen practice. Running through this book are questions we all live with: How do we face difficult or painful times? When do we accept the situation at hand and make the best of it or when do we put our full effort into changing it? How do we use a dillemma or an illness as a tool to enable us to grow in strength, wisdom and compassion, and even to give love and wisdom to others? "Lotus in the Fire" follows Bedard's journey through illness in an open and unselfconscious manner.He meets his trials with flexibility, knowing only that he does not know what is going to happen the next day, the next moment. Returning again and again to his Zen practice, Bedard finds energy when he has no energy left and an ability to ride through disappoinments with trust. Bedard expresses gratitude for his life and family and friends throughout the book. In "Lotus in the Fire," the reader walks with Bedard through the experience of having cancer. He holds nothing back, gives his all throughout the journey and throughout the book. A sense of responsiblility and of giving full effort with awareness, love and humor shines through this book. It is a tale told with grace and wit, and with the easy lilt of an author who finds joy in this world.

I really liked this book. The slapstick humor is funny and Tintin is quite an ingenius reporter. The plot is complex, and a little too complex for me. This is the sort of book that you read again and again and again. I read quite a few Tintin books before this one, and by then I had gotten sick of the humor. But if you like Tintin or if you've never read about him, get this book.

"The Blue Lotus" begins where "Cigars of the Pharaoh" left off, with Tintin and Snowy in India as the guests of the Maharaja of Gaipajama. The evil gang of international drug smugglers had been smashed and all of them are now behind bars except for the mysterious leader, who disappeared over a cliff. A visitor from Shanghai is hit with a dart dipped in Rajaijah juice, the poison of madness, which is enough to send our interipd hero to the Chinese city where his rickshaw runs into Gibsons, an occiental who is not looking where he is going and starts beating the rickshaw driver for daring to barge into a white man. Tintin intervenes, calling the man's conduct disgraceful and Gibbon vows revenge. The next thing we know Tintin is being shot at every time he turns around. Things become even more mysterious when another bystander is hit with a Rajaijah dart and Tintin embarks on a ship for Bombay only to wake up in the home of Wang Chen-yee, who begins to unravel the mystery for our hero.

This Tintin adventure was first published in Belgium in 1934-35, although the story is actually set in 1931, which was when Japanese troops were first occupying parts of China. Shangai, the great northern seaport on the Yangtze river, had an International Settlement that served as a trading base for Western nations. Hergé incoprorates several actual events in this narrative, including the blowing-up of the South Manchurian railway, which served as an excuse for further Japanese incursions into China, and led to Japan walking out on the League of Nations.

Of course, it is the Japanese invaders who are after Tintin, who is pretty much on his own for most of this adventure until the Thom(p)sons show up with orders to arrest him (of course the duo don native dress, wanting to avoid causing a scene by walking around dressed in European clothes). The title of the story comes form an opium den that figures prominently in the resoltuion of the tale. "The Blue Lotus" finds Hergé fully committed to providing accurate cultural details in is stories, although this story has the added virtue of being the most "realistic" in terms of portraying current events in a world poised on the brink of war. His drawings of Asian figures can certainly be considered caricatures, but then this is pretty much true of the way he draws everybody in these stories, with the simplistic look of Tintin being the exception that proves the rule.

"The Blue Lotus" is also the adventure in which Tintin meets Chang Choug-chen, a young orphaned Chinese boy our hero saves from drowning. Chang is surprised a white devil would bother to save his life and Tintin haas to explain how not all white men are wicked. The character of Chang is based on Chang Chong-Chen,a young Chinese student who became Hergé's friend in 1934, as is the case with Chang and Tintin. When the Communists took over China the two friends lost touch. Decades later Tintin would race across half the earth to help rescue his friend in "Tintin in Tibet" in 1960. Even though he does not appear in the interim, Hergé makes it clear that Chang is a very special friend to Tintin. "The Blue Lotus" is a first rate Tintin adventure, made all the more special because once World War II began Hergé made a concerted effort to distance his stories from the horrors of the real world. After the war Hergé would deal with East-West tensions on a completely fictional level, making this early adventure of more than passing interest in Hergé's career.

Oh, and in 1981, Georges Remi (a.k.a. Hergé) and Chang Chong-Chen were reunited.

Those delightful boobies, Thomson and Thompson, reappear in this sequel to 'Cigars Of The Pharoah', at one point ostentatiously disguising themselves in 'Mikado'-like finery to blend in with the Chinese locals, as they attempt to surreptitiously capture Tintin, only gathering an amused crowd in their wake.

For many Tintinophiles, 'The Blue Lotus' is the most precious of all Herge's masterpieces; certainly, in the event of a fire, after my dogs, and maybe my wife, my long-battered copy would be the first thing I would rescue. From its famous front cover - a giant, twisting black Chinese dragon on a rich red background, facing Tintin and Snowy as they hide in blue vase patterned with a bird and flowers, the images lit by a pale green lantern - every frame is a detailed artwork in itself. Set largely in Japan and European-occupied Shanghai in the early 1930s, every frame painstakingly evokes the Oriental setting: every wall-covering, item of clothing, ornament, building, street, poster, vehicle. Some of the landscapes and silhouettes are etched with the complex simplicity of a wood-cut by Hokusai, Hiroshige or Taige. The eye-dazzling colour is complemented by a much higher proportion of night scenes than previous Tintins. The deep, sombre colours give the story a melancholy (as do the peeling walls found everywhere behind the prettily picturesque Orientalist scenes). This sadness is matched by the plot's events, not just the violent expansionist plans of Japanese fascists or the culpability of European colonialists, but a world where brave sons turn mad, and orphans nearly drown by sheer chance. Herge's storytelling has also matured significantly since his early efforts: his pacing and variations of tone, his crosscutting and fragmenting of narrative, his sustaining mystery - all come together with superb mastery.

And for the first time, because the fictional world created is so believable and historically rooted, Tintin takes on the contours of a genuine hero, much more than a mad marionette endlessly dodging melodramatic villains. His genuine nobility, loyalty and courage, his touching friendship with the orphan Chang, all bespeak fading values in a world crashing towards totalitarianism. A beautiful, urgent book.

After finding things in this book that I couldn't find in the Lotus yellow books or the IBM red books, this book is the first book I look at when trying to fix a problem with Domino Server or Notes client. Of course this is the ONLY 3rd party book dedicated to R5 System Administration, but it fits well into the position

This book is simply the best book on the market that specializes on Domino Administration for R5. The book is written in a reader-friendly style and covers deeply technical information in an informative, yet approachable style. It gives not only the technical facts, but the pragmatic advice that comes from years of experience.

While the Lotus reference materials may give you choices of A, B, or C, this book recommends a specific choice and gives you the advantages and consequences of your choices. This type of advice is invaluable when it comes to making decisions about how to configure your system.

I've recommended this book to many of my clients and they are all pleased that they invested in it. Get this book.

Lotus' Yellow Books are fine 'n' dandy--if you have all day to look for the information you need. If you don't, turn to this book. The information is clear and well-written, taking you step-by-step through configuration and issues. For example, not only did it guide you through creating a simple mail-in database for registration ID's, the information was clear enough to be useful to create another such database for another need I had. Straightforward, well-written, good index (the *true* judge of a reference manual). It might not get you certified, but it will sure keep your Domino domain humming.

Finally a book that covers both LotusScript and Java in clear and detailed format. This is an essential reference book for any Notes/Domino shop. The sample code is first rate.

I bought this book originally expecting a full reference to Lotus and at first was a little dissappointed that it only covered LotusScript and Java. After reading it, now it is the only reference I use for LotusScript. I too have several other books, but none give the information and detaill in an easy to read format like this book. Anything you want to know about Classes, Methods, Properties, Events, and new R5 LotusScript features are covered in this book in detail with good examples. I also like how each class has it's own contents page giving page numbers for all of the assosiated Properties, Methods, and Events for QUICK reference.

Amazon only lets you put in 5 stars, this is a shame. If you are a Notes programmer, this IS your Essential Reference. I have found no other book that combines all of the LotusScript and Java front and back-end classes in such a usable fashion. The authors were kind enough to be concise yet descriptive while also providing many useful examples.

If I run into Tim or Dave at LotusSphere, I am definitely buying them a beer.

Of course we've all grown up with so many fiction characters from DC/Marvel comics, Disney, Archie's`etc., each of them with its own appeal and flavour ...

What sets Tintin apart from all the rest, I feel, the brilliant quality of the artwork. The level of detail, right from the wheels of flight 714 about to land on that tiny island (flight 714), to the shadow effects of walking in a hidden passage to the Inca empire (prisoners of the sun), to the shape of the waves on which Tintin in a coffin is floating (cigars of the pharaoh), or the jaguar in which Tintin chases the gangsters (the calculus affair), the details are just fantastic and the right amount, without creating too much noise and distraction - as is the case with many of the DC comics - iron man, the incredible hulk, etc.

The stories range from contemporary to looking ahead in the future - swing wing planes, rockets to the moon, hidden cameras/espionage. The subject matter is political, and in my opinion slightly controversial at times. Especially the way Herge stereotypes native people in India (Cigars of the Pharaoh, Tintin in Tibet), or in the jungles of Amazon (The Broken Ear). But even here, Herge is way above the shady and simplistic plots of the like of Phantom and Flash Gordon.

The collection is more readable towards the later comics, some of the earlier ones contains situations which are too improbable and rely far too much on luck for Tintin to get himself out of danger.

I loved Tintin books when I was a kid, and I love them now at age 37. I know I'm not alone, because a Tintin store in San Francisco sells Tintin coffee cups and ties and key chains (grown-up's items!) I myself have a Tintin tie and key chain! THE LAND OF BLACK GOLD is my favorite Tintin book. It has all the best characters, humor, and an intriguing plot. (That's why adults can like them, because many of the books have reasonably sophisticated James-Bond type plots.) Tintin forever!

I am only 11, and I have only read some of the Tintin books, and the reason I'm at Amazon.com is to buy all the others. Out of the one's I've read so far, I think "Red Rackham's Treasure" was my favorite. I loved the way Herge made Calculus, and thought he was extremely funny, even when he did get annoying! I love the Tintin books, and look forward to reading every single one again! If I could go over 5 stars, I would, definatly!

Programming Domino 4.6 With Jav

Lotus Domino support for EJB programming mode

This is by far the best and most useful book I have purchased in a long time! Bob has great insights on the future of Web interfaces to data and how you, as a programmer, can effectively work in the new paradigm. He does an excellent (and concise) job of helping you sort out the architectural options for the web: cgi/perl/asp/activex/etc. The book then has a detailed explanation of everything you need to know to program Domino in Java. I found Bob's speculation on the CORBA/IIOP and Domino v5.0 technologies especially useful in planning our IT infrastructure. Please buy this book if you are curious about Domino and Java! If you are new to Java you should also find a beginners guide. This is not a 'learn Java and Domino' text for beginners. Intermidiate and Advanced users, however, definitely need this book before they write another Agent in Domino or another CGI script in Perl. This book will wake you up to the future of the Web, Domino, and Java programming!