Now in a newly updated and expanded second edition, Electronic Democracy: Using The Internet To Transform American Politics by Graeme Browning (Editorial Director, Internet Policy Institute and Associate Editor for "Federal Computer Week", a key publication for technology news in the federal government) is a fascinating, authoritative, and informative guide to politics on the Internet. The issues and topics covered range from using the World Wide Web for grassroots organization to making one's email to Congress count, to the history and future of online voting and polling, to online campaign resources and projections for the future. Electronic Democracy is a compelling and very highly recommended read for motivated political citizens who want to better understand the profound impacts that the technology of today and tomorrow has upon our nation's government of, by, and for the people!

The Internet has taken on many important roles in recent years as a powerful communications and information medium. Apart from online marketing of businesses, perhaps no other part of our lives has been more influenced by the Internet than that of discussing politics and spiritual matters and making our particular points of view seen and heard by others.

Electronic Democracy (2nd Edition, 2002) written by Graeme Browning offers readers amazing insight of the powerful role that the Internet has played in transforming American politics. At no other time in American history have so many people been able to discuss issues that matter to them the most and actually been able to do something about changing the course of the American political landscape.

Throughout the book readers are presented with actual events - names, dates, places, and circumstances that led other people to take action. Readers will learn about political parties, special interest groups, and common everyday folks who took action to express their points of view and to seek change. The book describes in vivid detail the roles that numerous Websites, discussion groups, and e-mail campaigns had in electing politicians, removing certain politicians from office, changing laws, and affecting other matters of public policy.

The book serves as an excellent guide for becoming politically active in the American political scene - or for that matter, in any country around the world. Readers will learn how to mount their own grassroots campaigns - right from home. They will learn how to organize campaigns, raise funds, present issues, contact people, influence legislation, and to get the word out about their own particular causes - responsibly. They will also learn about the dark side of online activism - the abuses that have taken place to disrupt American culture. As they will read, dirty tricks are still very much a part of politics.

This is one book I couldn't put down easily. It's highly informative, gripping, thought-provoking, and will surely motivate people of all backgrounds and persuasions to become more involved in shaping the direction America will head in. It's must reading for anyone desiring to become an agent of change in American society. This book will help you get started today!

Browning's book should be the first stop for on-line activists. There are so many authors out there proclaiming the internet to be the salvation of democracy that Browning is a voice of moderation. I would recommend this book as your starting point for internet activism.

Hi

I wrote a review a while back.

Recently one of guys who wrote a chapter in the book emailed me that made a mistake in who I attributed which chapters to.

If I send you a corrected review, will you replace the old one? I think tht would be easier than trying to reword the old one.

Thanks

Stevehein@hotmail.com

Emotional intelligence has become an interesting area of research in the fields of psychology and education. Salovey and Sluyter enlighten readers by providing an understanding of emotional intelligence and how this construct is vital to successful human adaptation.

The editors include works by several prominent researchers that offer varying perspectives on the development of human emotions, and many educational implications. A particularly refreshing component of this book is the inclusion of a K-12 educator's commentary at the end of each chapter.

Salovey and Sluyter provide a well-presented collection of valuable research on the popular topic of emotional intelligence. This book is recommended for everyone that is interested in the recent research on emotional intelligence and emotional development. However, Emotional Development and Emotional Intelligence is essential for researchers, teachers, and other professionals in the fields of education and psychology.

It provides an important link between empirical research and practical applications of emotional intelligence. Although research on emotional intelligence continues, this book is the first step towards founding a knowledge base on this important construct.

Peter Salovey and his colleague, John Mayer, were apparently the first to use the term "emotional intelligence" in their academic research. Of special interest is Salovey's new definition of the term which he offers in this book (in the first article.)

The book is a collection of academic articles which each offer lots of research journal citations. This makes it easy for someone to do further research. (Very handy for college students writing papers!)

Salovey only wrote two articles for the book. I would prefer to have seen more of his writing. It seems to be a bit more concise. Some of the contributors get very wordy and overly academic when they could say things much more simply.

Each article is followed by a short commentary by an K-12 educator. I found these commentaries are only somewhat helpful. Even they were pretty academic. I would prefer more practical suggestions, such as those on my site (see below)

If you have a masters or Ph.D. you won't have too much trouble with the book. But it is not written for the average second grade teacher.

Still, it is worth the time it takes to read it, and I would agree that it is an "authoritative" book. Peter Salovey by the way, seems to be more concerned with making a positive difference in the world, while Daniel Goleman seems to be more concerned with making a fortune and a name for himself. Salovey is, for example, is working with educators while Goleman is pandering to the corporations with his new book on EQ for business.

And I personally agree with most of Salovey's approach to EI in education. For example, he says teach EI lessons as the opportunity arises throughout the day. He understates the importance of the teacher's emotions and his/her own level of EI, however. Teachers have a lot of work to do on their own emotional management before they will be good instructors and, more importantly, models, of EI.

Article 4 by Greenberg and Snell is the best single article I have seen on the child's brain and the importance of healthy emotional nurturing in the first few years.

Other especially informative articles were 5 and 6 on regulation of emotions.

Article 9 is interesting in how it suggests we apply academic research to practical educational settings.

Summary

A bit pricey, but full of research data and references as well as very interesting information on the brain and the child's emotional development. And as the title suggests, it does address educational implications, albeit in a somewhat theoretical manner. Overall, I would recommend it to anyone who is seriously interested in either EI or education.

Kudos to Roxann Dawson and Daniel Graham in starting this
gripping series about a young woman thirst for revenge against the backdrop of emerging interstellar war! Andrea Flores, a married young woman and mother of a infant daughter sees her life shattered; when offworld terrorists attack killing her husband and infant daughter! Now Andrea becomes a hardened avenger who seeks vengeance against the killers.Andrea must leave Earth and go to the alien Jod homeworld and join their elite military service called Tenebrea in the hopes of finding the killers! She endure a harsh training and prejudice of the Jod in her struggle and finally going undercover to the terrorists' homeworld, Cor Ordinate and lead a rebellion of clones! The authors have written superior military sf saga about a young woman who immediately gets our sympathy in her struggles to find justice for her murdered family. The authors' world-building skills are above-average in creating Jod civilization and fascist Cor Ordinate.I especially like the rugged scenes of the training of Tenebrea and finally gripping battle scenes upon Cor Ordinate.Bring on the next Andrea Flores novel, I want more!
Cor Ordinate
homeworld

Wow is the first word out of my mouth when I finished this first book of the trilogy. I immediately wanted the story to go on so I could see what happens next. I couldn't put it down!! I was lucky enough to buy it when Roxann was signing them at a convention. I read the entire book in one day!! If you like military and sci-fi stuff, you will love this one!! Bravo to both Roxann and Daniel for such an entertaining and thought provoking book!! Can't wait for the next installment coming out soon!!

I was lucky enough to pick up this book at a book signing and so I've got a signed hard-backed special edition!!! The cover is by the 4X award winning artist, Dan Curry -- he's done some of the coolest visual effects you see in Hollywood. And the book was a real page-turner!! Roxann Dawson is as talented a writer as she is an actress -- and she's really gorgeous in person. Dan Graham seems like a bit of a character and I think his training the Army Rangers paid off in the way he wrote about military exercises and strategy. The whole book was very well written and I'm looking forward to the next book. As a matter of fact, I came to Amazon.com to see if they were carrying it yet. I hope it comes out in hardback, too, so I can get one of the copies. Anyone know how I can get it signed? I wouldn't mind seeing Roxann again!! ;-)

Dan McNeill does a very thorough job in discussing the face. From evolution, culture, physiology, and psychology. I was very impressed with the amount of research he went through, who knew the ear alone had such a long and rich history?

The two aspects of the book I found most interesting were the evolutionary background of each feature of the face from the obvious (ie. the mouth) to the not so obvious (ie. the eyebrow) and his own philisophical meanderings into the standards of beauty.

He also discusses facial expressions, differences in facial structure among different races, comparisons to other species, facial augmentation including piercings and plastic surgery, as well as a brief and not too complicated study in anatomy.

My only caution is that I hoped that there would be more illustrations to accompany some of his text, but McNeill is a lively author and this is definately a good nonfiction read. I can't stress his thoroughness enough so that there's something in there for everyone, from the hardcore scientist to the curious layperson.

Everything the amazon.com review says up there is true. A well-written, well-rounded, fascinating, funny and sometimes poetic book-- but also big fun for science-heads like me! It is so lovely when books can draw from biological, evolutionary, historical, psychological, sociological, literary and cultural perspectives at the same time (and more, I just got tired of listing ologies). The antidote to the other kind of specialised learning.

How many things can be said about our faces and from how many points of view!

Apart from the deep interest of the topic itself, in the richness of the aspects addressed, the book is wonderfully written and this alone makes it worth reading. McNeill has the rare gift of an enjoyable, entertaining expression which translates into a fluent and brilliant narrative. There have been many pages where, like in a conjurer's trick, the author sprang up from the printed words and took shape at my side as a sort of domestic conteur, accompanying me while slowly walking around my kitchen's table where I use to read books in a slow, tacit peripatetic rite, away from the TV set and the PC. Since my childhood's years I have been almost totally incapable to read without moving: the phenomenon started with a rhythmic oscillation of the legs and went further through successive stages of mild agitation, until it peacefully settled into a stable circular - I dare say, mandalic - form of ambulation: maybe this quality of mine as a reader can be deciphered in some trait of my face, let's say, the way I laugh or the way I look at people when I speak close in front of them.

Who knows which mysterious relationships our inner world establishes with our faces and in which way they tend to show externally, when perceived by the others!

McNeill takes you in the heart of this constant link between souls and faces, between life and facial expression and appearance. But, although the book never descends to the level of an arid exposition of facts and findings, don't believe its content escapes the filter of a rigorous scientific approach.

On the contrary, each assertion, while light and elegant in its wording, rests upon a solid background of careful observation and experiment. Few books are so poetically taxonomic, only that definition and category disappear from view disguised in a masterful reporting. You pass from a detailed examination of facial muscles (now I know which one to blame for my forehead wrinkles: the corrugator!) to the typical clues which may give you away as a lying hypocrite. Anecdotally overabundant the book gets you acquainted with lots of characters and ideas picked up from a vast segment of the history of thought. Psychology, neurology, physiognomy, social behaviour and cultural traditions are all deeply searched in order to extract meaning out of faces. But perhaps the most important lesson you are taught is that when you cope with faces - of course starting with your own - you should be quite careful not to take all at its face value.

So my advice is: read this beautiful book, then watch yourself straight in the eyes in front of a mirror and honestly tell me if you really see the same person as before.

Jane Butler-Biggs and editor Alison Daniels? We should bless their very socks and shoes, for in writing The Feng Shui Directory, they have given us a book that shines like a beacon out of the musty, dusty, teetering pile of current Feng Shui titles. Everytime I dip into this book, it starts my synapses zinging!
The Feng Shui Directory helps us to change our attitiudes, not just our furniture. It shows us how to PAY ATTENTION, giving us the skills to recognise how our homes affect us, and, reciprocally, how our behaviour and thinking affect our homes.
Consider the chapter on prosperity. It begins with several thought-provoking questions to ask ourselves regarding
abundance. It goes on to offer solutions for long-term patterns of poverty, a ritual to promote abundance and several methods to to invite sucess into our lives. With a wonderful assortment of practical techniques to apply all over the house and garden, it even informs us how many changes to make at a given time, how fast to do them and how to tell if youve gone a bit overboard boosting your wood energy!
The Feng Shui Directory is a really supportive book, written with much compassion, humour and crystal clear common-
sense. As a Feng Shui practitioner, I recommend this book to those clients, who, in the true spirit of transformation, really wish to explore the art behind the placement.
It 's a great book!

Excelent book of fheng shiu, easy, dinamic, well organice, interesting. The perfect book to underestand this ancient art of well living as a beginner.

The Feng Shui Directory is a great way to start Feng Shiu and learn more about it. Much more than a guide to interior decorating or an ancient scheme of superstitions, Feng Shui is presented along with all the psychological and scientific benefits.

This book isn't organized - like other books of it's sort - by the rooms in your home. Instead, chapters like "Family" or "Love and Realtionships" describe how to use Feng Shiu to change different areas of your life. Feng Shiu is presented as a way of thinking and getting in touch with yourself, not as a guide to rearranging furniture.

The authors take a minimalistic approach - change slowly, over time, and feel things out. You won't be told where the table must go, but how to tap into your intuition and figure out (within the guidelines of Feng Shui) where you might best place it.

The entire book is in full color, and the illustrations and "Quick Fixes" sections are a great addition. This book is probably too general for the experienced Feng Shui-er seeking to improve specific areas of his/her life, but overall it's a definite thumbs up.

This review refers to the first edition, which, aside from the dated computer programs used for analyses, discusses a variety of topics that are not typically covered in traditional regression texts. Especially valuable is chapter 9 which consists of a situation where using a combination of linear and nonlinear fits simultaneously, complete with both qualitative and quantitative data. A great extension past books like Draper and Smith and Myers and Montgomery.

This is a classic text on regression. I am only familiar with an earlier edition but I am sure the style the writing and the content has not changed significantly. This book gives good practical advice as to how to fit regression models and considers all the pitfalls that applied statisticians are faced with. Many of the issues that are raised today including problems of overfitting, multiple collinearity, outliers, diagnostic plots etc. were all considered by these applied statisticians some 30 years ago.

This book is a classic work in the field of data analysis which is often cited in more recent texts. In the present world of Windows, SAS, SPSS, S-Plus, etc., the pioneering work of Daniel and Wood on computer applications to data analysis looks somewhat dated. However, it will repay careful study by anyone who wants to do thorough analysis of real world data, especially manufacturing process data, because it includes topics, such as nested data sets, which are common in industrial data, but regrettably cannot be analyzed by most standard linear regression techniques as presented in more recent texts. It is a very valuable adjunct to books like Draper and Smith.

There has been a lot of Houdini fiction done over the years -- most mixing Harry with the likes of Sherlock Holmes or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle -- but for my money these new Daniel Stashower "Harry Houdini Mystery's" are by far the best Houdini fiction yet produced. I think the secret is that Stashower uses Harry's brother, Dash Hardeen, as the narrator and primary character of the story. This works much in the same way as telling a Sherlock Holmes story from the point of view of Dr. Watson. The reader relates to the relatively "normal" character of Dash, allowing the character of Houdini to be his wildly eccentric, semi-superhuman self. We share in Dash's amazement at his brother's abilities (and galloping ego), and remaining outside the head of Harry Houdini preserves the mystery of the man. I also like how Stashower sets these books before the turn-of-the (last) century, which gives us a Houdini before he became "the world famous self-liberator." The books are spiced wi!th little bits of ironic Houdini lore, such as having Harry meet and defend his future chief assistant Jim Collins from murder in FLOATING LADY. This is Stashower's second book in the series, and it's just as good as his first; The Dime Museum Murders. I HOPE HE CONTINUES. One complaint; would it kill the publisher to put these out in hardcover editions?

The second novel in Stashower's historical series featuring Harry Houdini is even better than his first. It is 1898, and Houdini is trying to find not his niche-Houdini would not be satisfied with a mere niche-but recognition of his genius. Since Houdini is still far from his goal, he, his wife, and his brother, Dash Hardeen, take employment with Kellar, at the time the dean of American magicians. The brothers' role primarily will be to investigate what would appear to be sabotage of the Kellar show, but they also are instrumental in the final development of Kellar's long-time dream-the floating-lady illusion. It is this illusion that leads to an impossible crime. While the act is being performed, the lady falls about 72 feet, with the usual unfortunate results. Yet her death was caused not by the abrupt end of the fall but by drowning. (This information appears in the blurb, so I am giving nothing away.) Plot, characterization, the picture of the times, the show-business and theater aspect, and the humor are all handled flawlessly. And the impossible crime is an intriguing one, with a most satisfactory explanation.

Why as classy and graceful a writer (and series) as this, is relegated to paperback originals is a mystery in and of itself. But, why look a gift horse in the mouth? Lucky readers not only get to enjoy a truly unique story, they get to do so at a bargain price. Stashower's second novel in the series (a follow-up to "The Dime Museum Murders") features an intriguing mystery, a charming set of characters based, loosely to be sure, in reality, and a world-class amateur's knowledge of backstage at the magic show. If there is any fault at all with the book, it's the minor annoyance of a totally unnecessary framing narrative which, while pleasant, seems to be a bit contrived as opposed to the narrative itself which is conjoured by a master.

Every person born is a highly probabilistic creature, having been randomly put together by a chance selection from twenty-three chromosomes from each parent. The combinatorial variation is remarkable even in extremely homogeneous populations, and even more so in multicultural populations where there are great disparities in the average abilities of different groups. Blacks excel in sports of speed leading to their total dominance in professional sports. Jews excel in verbal intelligence leading to their remarkable dominance in law, academics, politics, and the media. And other groups fall in between these group-based genetic differences. However, it is evident throughout this book that these issues will not be dealt with honestly and directly. They will be tip-toed around, especially intelligence.

This book ignores the more communitarian morality of Asian countries and/or western particularistic moral theories. They do take it up in Appendix II, "Methodology." There they state simply that a communitarian moral theory only exists as a condemnation of liberalism -- it does not attempt to put forth its own communitarian moral theory as rigorously as has been put forth by liberalism or a Rawlsian theory. Notice the irony here, that the same charge can be made against those (Gould, Lewontin, Rose, Kamin, et al.) who claim that there is no difference in the average intelligence of races or that genes do not matter. They also, like the communitarian moralists, have only attacked empiricists who have developed sociobiology and intelligence as genetically based. So now we have the kettle calling the stove black.

These authors are concerned that society will become more stratified with regards to genetic capital by various groups. That is, the well-to-do will be able to use genetic engineering to eliminate unwanted genes as well as enhance their children's potential by inserting new "improved" genes into their genetic code -- including altering the germ line genes that will be carried on to successive generations. Is this a fair criticism? Not really, because this is how evolution progresses and it has already occurred as I stated above. Groups, because of breeding are not the same. Again, using the example of Ashkenazi Jews or east Asians who dominate the economies of south Asian countries, multiculturalist societies are already made up of groups who are not equal. Ashkenazi Jews have and average IQ of 117 and live among populations with an average IQ of 100. Malaysians have an average IQ of 90 with a troublesome east Asian minority, that will not assimilate, and has an average IQ of about 106 that dominates the economy. Australians have a troublesome minority of aborigines with a low IQ. These and many other examples show that there is nothing new about some groups eugenically rising above other groups, in terms of intelligence at least. But now that we have new tools at our disposal, those of us who would like to acquire the high intelligence of Ashkenazi Jews for example are told that it is somehow unjust!

This book addresses all of the neccessary details of the social ramafications involved with our knowledge of the human genome. In this book, the heart wrenching accounts of America's eugenic movement are powerful enough to move anyone to become actively involved in the issues at hand. A real eye opener, one which makes it painstakingly clear that we are not prepared to deal with the information that we have aquired about ourselves and eachother.

I would like to suggest that this book is a landmark in the intellectual history of the human race on a par with Rousseau's Social Contract and Darwin's Origin of the Species. This book is a great achievement for the authors (a "dream team" of practicing bioethicists). I had just enough training in ethics (B.A. Michigan 1982) to understand the book and I enjoyed it immensely.

I wonder, however, whether this book would probably be inaccessible to many readers who should read it. I expect we will need a really thorough set of "Cliff Notes" (or "Genomic Ethics for Dummies"), since this book seems designed to be read by the modern ethical philosopher, moreso than the educated members of the public. Perhaps the reviewers on Amazon.com could provide such a service for the world. I was fortunate to have an advance peek at the book through a conference held in San Diego in January, so I have had some time to reflect on the book's implications.

This book made me intrigued about the prospect for some people using the genome to have better babies (see the book on Designer Babies by Dr. Gosden for the "how to" on in vitro fertilization). Under secular ethical principles, as outlined in this book, do parents have an ethical obligation to use genomic information to have a "healthier" child? If so, what are the ethical boundaries of that obligation? NPR had a report some time ago about some achondroplastic dwarf parents who wanted to choose a child with their genetic "defect" --- is that sometime ethically prohibited by the principles in this book? The parental choice issues raised by this book strike me as the issue ripe for controversy. These are the fundamental questions that this book raises for every member of the human race who plans to procreate (or already has procreated).

My kids will be entering the first generation where prospects for improving admission to the aristocracy (e.g. to an Ivy League school) arguably could begin at the moment of conception (if in vitro, aided by genomic data to screen embryoes). I find that interesting and a little bit alarming.

Chance to Choice also addresses myriad ethical issues (those relating to "distributive justice" in the mode of John Rawls' Theory of Justice) that will spin off from the genome project. They suggest that genetic discrimination (the "genetic ghetto") may arise if we are not careful about how this information is used.

For anyone planning to make a living from the genome, some understanding of this book is essential to their success in business (I am an attorney involved in biotech issues and I think that this book point to (but does not map out) the boundaries of what companies can do with the genome).

My EMail is tredick@chapinlaw.com if anyone interested in discussing this book's implications further. I think that people will be talking about this one until the talking, bipedal genetically enhanced, vegetarian activist cows come home sometime in the next hundred years (just kidding... ;).

I plan to buy some extra copies on Amazon.com to give away or mark up with highlighters (those parts I need to read many times to really understand). It really is a great and timely book.

Tom

The quest to be spirit filled never ends because it is always revealed that we must continue on toward an ever moving goal. This text certianly reveals fresh,yet ancient ways, to become more aware of what lies around us and how we can incorporate it into ourselves. I have come to understand that to be so self focused is not to be "self centered," for as we beautify our spirit we bring beauty to the world.

Inspiring! I couldn't put it down.

I couldn't put the book down. I read a lot of spirituality, but this one is one of the best. It goes over major life events, ways to pray, ways to contemplate, why, how to do it in the modern world. It doesn't recommend running to a guru, but gives sound advice to use today. Highly recommended.

900 bucks is outrageous!! This book better come with a brand new car or a trip to Europe!!

I certainly hope this book doesn't cost 300 dollars, is it made of gold? I would like to buy it as well, but I find it hard to believe it costs this much money! If anyone reads this, please tell me if the price is correct, My e-mail: flaviacampos@clix.pt Thank you.

I know that this book does not cost $599.00 so who ever reads this I have a message . Tell someone to fix the page cause I want to buy this book and I can;t do that without the price .