Fast action, witty dialog, sharp characters and believable situations made this book the best of the "Horror High" series. See if you can get it used somewhere. It's worth looking for.

This book provides good information layed out in an easy to read format on the cultivation, consumption, legality, and history of peyote and other similar cacti. It also gives a breakdown of the alkaloids in peyote and gives detailed methods for mescaline extraction (you know...for resaerch purposes). It also includes pictures and descriptions of other cacti containing alkaloids similar to peyote. The only shortcoming I find in this book is the lack of any research reports on the harmful effects of peyote, but that could be because there has been very little research done on it. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in peyote for any purpose.

Considering how frequently a pedestrian can see a variation of Benjamin Franklin's name while walking around downtown Philadelphia, one almost wonders why a statue of William Penn is erected on its city hall. The U.S.'s former capital is thick with American history. When the Declaration of Independence was signed there in 1776, it was North America's largest city. Considering the jeopardy our founding fathers risked in rebelling against England, there is plenty of residual stress for ghosts. PHILADELPHIA GHOST STORIES does a captivating job of introducing readers to the city through its ghost folklore.

This 1998 book consists of ghost stories taking place in this historic city. The volume contains 23 chapters (including introduction), each one dealing with either a single haunted site or multiple shorter encounters with a common trait. Black and white photos and art supplement these stories.

In Library Hall, the solid apparition of Franklin, with an armload of books, pushes against a 19th-century cleaning woman with an impact that nearly knocks her over. Late employee Albert J. Edmunds at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania was an avid follower of the supernatural and can still be heard typing away in his former office. At Fort Mifflin, a Civil War blacksmith is still heard working and seen standing outside of his shop.

Through Philadelphia's ghostlore some of its obscure or macabre history is revealed. Dealing with massive death rates during the Revolutionary War or at times of epidemics, the bodies of the indigent had to be buried in paupers' graves and they currently remain in these "Potter's Fields." Their mass graves are located in two primary locations, known today as Washington Square and Logan's Circle. Voices are sometimes heard floating around these vicinities and Leah, a little old lady who used to patrol the aforementioned park to discourage resurrectionists, has been seen by one of the most credible witnesses an investigator could hope to run across: a policeman who just happened to be walking through one cold November morning.

In this book's preface, Author Charles J. Adams III says "I am not a scholarly folklorist. I am not a historian. I am not a paranormal investigator. I am but a storyteller." As a storyteller he does well. Adams's style is engrossing, making it hard to put down and fun to read. The stories have just enough background to make them satisfying.

Some of the different fonts took away from graphics' aesthetics. The need to fill white space seems compulsive, but the book's format was readable regardless. Those requiring magnify glasses to read might appreciate the type is larger than the average found in most trade books.

The nature of this type of ghostlore book could have a bit of serendipity for a few readers. Although some of the names have been changed, genealogists with an interest in Philadelphia might run across a story with a familiar name or homestead and maybe even find new information about their ancestors.

As for whether Franklin actually "built" the city, it is one of the few things he didn't found. Ironically, his home and print shop--located close to Independence Hall--were torn down to make way for a new thoroughfare during the 19th century. (Therefore, it's no surprise his studious soul is seen at Library Hall.) Despite this thoughtlessness, he is the most influential citizen Philadelphia ever had.

If readers take PHILADELPHIA GHOST STORIES in the spirit it is intended, it can be a really fun book. Anyone looking for something more serious in science or background should go somewhere else.

In the shadow of the upcoming Supreme Court decision concerning affirmative action, I wanted to do some research on the issue. This books treatment is excellant. There are detailed articles about the Bakke and Hopwood cases. There's a summary of the Harvard's affirmitive action policy which was praised by the Supreme Court in the Bakke case as an excellant policy. An article opposing all civil rights laws followed by an artcile that justifies affirmative action are both thought provoking. There is also an intersting article about various ways to look at equality and fairness in treating your children in different situations.

The upcoming decision in the Michigan case may truly be a watershed opinion on affirmative action at least in university admission cases. Justice Blackmun said it best in the Bakke case: "there is no other way" than affirmative action. We cannot end racism without taking into account race.

This is one of the best books I have read on the field of anthropology and one of the better books I have read on the history of the human sciences and their relationship to Euro-American philosophy. The great gift that Euro-American anthropology of the Modern period has bequeathed to the intellectual history of its own culture is that ideas, like peoples, like individuals, have histories and are themselves cultural artifacts. While anthropologists routinely apply this basic principle to "alien" societies, they tend to do so without reflecting on the provenance of their own thinking. Professor Adams's book thoroughly teases out several distinctive strands of anthropological thinking and traces the various permutations of these strands of thought through time. The book is well written and recommended for students of anthropology, philosophy, and the history and philosophy of the Euro-American sciences of the Modern period.

The title of this book proposes it as an 'introduction', and it is. But it takes you much much further than that, without making you feel like you are struggling to get there.
My only complaints about this book are very minor. There is one paragraph in the book which I disagree with, and have strong evidence to show that it is an error, wheather the author would agree with my position, I don't know. This being the only piece of text I would really change. Not bad for a book of this size.
My other minor quibble is that this is a text book and has the look of a text book. Why not shop this book to a wide audience ? It's far far better than any non fiction philosophy book I've seen, marketed to the public.
Oh, and one other thing, that goes hand in hand with the above point, the index is ok, but could be better.

I read this book soon after it came out and what I learned has been very valuable since then.
If you know nothing about philosophy and want to become a crack philosopher over night, or if you are already a crack philosopher and want to see how to write a great book, go out and buy Mortons Philosophy In Practice - Now !
Highly Recommended !

This book is an excellent guide of the largest employers in the Phoenix Metropolitan area and other parts of the state. It is also a good reference guide to see what type of industries are in the valley of the sun and where they are located. The book contains sections on job hunting and helpful hints. I would highly recommend it.

This is a collection of magnificent pictures by America's premiere photographer, sadly marred by the pretentious twaddle of a chronic kicker from Tucson who faults everyone in the Southwest except his own redeeming presence.

It's beautiful work by Ansel Adams, well worth whatever you pay for the book. The pretentious twaddle by Lawrence Clark Powell is typical Tucson, people who manage to find fault with everything.

First, the pictures. Photography was part of my job for years, and I have visited probably half of the places included in this book. For example, consider the picture of White House Ruin in Canyon de Chelly, taken in 1942. I've taken dozens of photos of it, and hiked every foot in the vicinity. Nothing of mine comes close to the mastery of Adams beautiful black-and-white photograph. I suspect that even if I copied his picture as precisely as possible, mine would still look dull in comparison to his artistry.

Adams' mastery of the camera and the art of making prints is such that even in black-and-white, his pictures sparkle with a luminosity that puts color to shame. In recent years newspapers have wasted a great effort on color pictures. Adams' work shows how superior the old black-and-white photos could be in comparison to modern newspaper color. Any photo editor would weep to have such quality today. More's the pity the newspapers do not emphasize quality instead of glitzy novelty.

It's more than a book about the Southwest; it's a book about how to see nature and the world around us. Adams had an eye for natural beauty. I've no doubt he could find beauty and art even in a junk yard. He knew what to include in a picture, and how much to leave out, and the precise moment when it all came together. His pictures of cacti, aspens, rocks and adobe structures will cause anyone to look again and more closely at their surroundings, to appreciate the beauty of detail in a grander setting.

Sadly, the words fall far short of the pictures. Fifty years ago, Joseph Wood Krutch wrote in praise of the Southwest, "the combination of brilliant sun and high, thin, dry air with a seemingly limitless expanse of sky and earth [that] my first reaction was delighted amusement. How far the ribbon of road beckoned ahead! How endlessly much there seemed to be of the majestically rolling expanse of bare earth dotted with sagebrush!"

Such beauty still exists in the Southwest, even today. I have often driven such roads.

In contrast, Powell is an old grouch. The only things he finds to praise are his own presence and ruined adobes. He seeks the negatives, such as Gallup, New Mexico, where "the Indian may be seen in the stages of disintegration -- drinking, fighting, staggering and falling to the sidewalk and gutter. Here is the place to read 'Laughing Boy,' LaFarge's lament for a people debauched by an alien race."

Powell ignores the fact Gallup has established one of the nation's outstanding alcohol rehabilitation programs, far superior to anything in Tucson. His ugly words are a contrast to the beauty of Adams' photographs.

It doesn't matter. Buy the book for the photographs, they are worth it. Ignore Powell's whiney complaints. You'll get a gem in terms of wonderful pictures, and for laugh's you'll see Tucsonian political correctness run amok.

I was a novice to Photoshop Elements. It looked like a good program, but I really didn't know where to start. I wanted to fix some photos I had scanned into the computer. The manual that came with Elements had a quick start guide to fixing photos. I guess I'm a dummy, but I couldn't figure out the basics of selecting stuff, and what to do if I ever got the part of the photo isolated, that I wanted to repair. Enter Zero to Hero. Tom Arah showed me how to use the selection tools, what layers were for, and how to manipulate the selected areas for best effect. I was able to take old fuzzy photos, with dim lighting, that the automatic correction features of Elements didn't handle well, and make usable images from them. I learned to correct color casts, dim lighting, poorly exposed photos, etc. I am still not a pro, but my family was amazed at what I could do with those photos. I am especially fascinated by the ability to add fill flash to foreground objects and people. All these capabilities were there just waiting for me, but for the life of me, I couldn't figure how to do it, from the manual. Mr. Arah's book has made it possible for even a dummy like me, to use Photoshop Elements with a modicum of expertise. Thanks for the clear and well-illustrated guide, Mr. Arah!

George Adams book, Physical and Ethereal Spaces, presents for the reader an introduction to the geometry of geometries - Projective or Synthetic Geometry. It does this without reference to formulas or proofs, but entirely within the picturing imagination. What is little known is that pure thinking (thinking freed from the senses), actually takes place in Ethereal Space, and thus this geometric discussion is not just about a mathematical or geometric Idea, but rather about the "invisible place" in which we exist as creative thinkers.
Ordinarily we believe our thinking takes place in the brain, with consciousness somehow arising from some strange quantum bio-electircal physical cause. Yet, it is possible to experience that this is not true, and that real thinking (not just lazily having thoughts), but thinking arising out of intention and will, this thinking lives in the "invisible", a realm quite aptly discussed in this book with its considerations of the geometry of infinity.