I don't think I fully understood what the true meaning of having a "best friend" was until after reading this book. It gives such insight into what it means to be and to have a Best Friend. It explores the concepts of unconditional love and true acceptance of the people we call our Best Friends. This would be a great book to give to the person in your life that holds the honor of being your Best Friend.

This is a great keep sake to share with your Best Friend or as a table top book to add to your collection. The saying and verses are touching and the stories are reminders of what friendship is like or should be like! I bought this for each of best friends and they cherish it more than anything.

I have read all three books cover to cover. In addition to being nice books to look at, they tell compelling stories. By the time I finished, I was misty-eyed and feeling like I needed to reconnect to the friends I've had for the past 10-15 years. Even though the same phrase was repeated throughout the book,"My friend is one who I can be real with; someone I've told things I've never anyone else before." in each case, it feels fresh and new due to the unique circumstances each friend met. I was glad to see men, people with disabilities, Asians, blacks and hispanics, teenagers, and young children just starting to learn about friendship. It's really an inclusive book and I hope they do another trilogy: Fathers and Sons, Brothers, Couples.

what is desalination in membrane

An interesting tale of Larry Lavin. A dentist with a career ahead of him. The Lure of money led to him dabble in the "Candy" of the 1980's. Intriguing was how he hid so close to the authorities as a fugitive. Good reading. Perhaps he was pursuing what many of taught is the American Dream....well worth the read.

Dr. Walt Larimore feels like an old friend. I was surprised to find this book/workbook available on amazon. He gives practical ways to incorporate faith into medicine. A must for Christian physicians and practitioners.

I loved this book that my sister gave me for Christmas. She added her own thoughts and a picture on the last page. I was so extremely moved and the stories and photos are representative of sisters everywhere. Daughters and Mothers is also a fantastic book. I saw one of the authors and bought one for my daughter who is 15 yrs old. I had her sign it to both of us. Very sweet!

I've read better true crime books, but this is better than most. A lot of unnecessary details are included. And then there are some strange omissions. We read about the doctor's parents a lot at the beginning and then it's just mentioned parenthetically along the way that they died.

The book could have benefitted from a good paring down, say by 30%. But then they couldn't sell it for as much could they?

I am from Southern Illinois and remembered when the Cavaness case came about. One of our neighbors had been one of his nurses. I couldn't fathom a father killing his sons and in such a gruesome and cowardless way. I also couldn't comprehend a town that could worship such a menace to society. And the unbelievable part is that even today, he is still regarded as a well respected indidvidual.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves true crime. You will not be able to put this book down.

"Murder In Little Egypt."
This book is unnerving to the soul yet unforgetable. My mother bought this book a couple of years ago do the fact that Dr. Cavaness was her doctor and also the doctor of some other members of my family.
Although i was only eight years old at the time Dr. Cavaness murdered his son Sean, I still remember my parents and family members discussing it. In private of course, but being a sly little girl i would hide behind the couch or stand in the hallway unnoticed and listen quietly to the conversation at hand.

Egypt, as the title refurs to is better known as Southern Illinois. Little Egypt, lies between Eldorado and Harrisburg Illinois. My home town area.

The news spread across the area within days and disrupted and discouraged the lives of friends and citizens of Dr. John Dale Cavaness, a respected, well known and well liked doctor, who lived in Harrisburg and practiced at Pearce Hospital in Eldorado. I found the details of Seans murder to be sickening and heartbreaking. I was in tears as i continued to read about their lives and how twisted it was. When my mother gave me this book she asked me if i remembered the story of what happened. Briefly i did but i had no idea of the turmoil behind it. The details and lives of the Cavaness's are well understood and i just couldn't put the book down until it was finished. It made me think twice about what doctor i choose.

"Tapped Out" is a good primer for those just beginning to study the issue of water scarcity, but there is little new in the book. Simon has taken quotes from news articles and studies and compiled them into a fairly credible call for action, however most of the information he references in the book dates from the early to mid-90s and is pulled from news sources. He calls for more development of desalinization technologies and more conservation, but his suggestions lack insight into the biggest problem facing the world--too many people seeking the good life where adequate water is taken for granted. In the US, where the problem is related to a growing population, and primarily to the country's addiction to water-wasting recreation and industry, he addresses water restriction almost as an afterthought. "Tapped Out" should be just the beginning of an investigation into the future of a thirsty world.

Wnen it comes to water and environmental issues, the United States looks much more like a third world banana republic than a first-world, top-of-the-heap military and economic superpower. Years ago, former US senator Paul Simon alerted our government to a problem that could be mankind's undoing: the uneven distribution and wasteful consumption of water for agriculture, industry, and urban consumers across the nation and the greater world. His book, Tapped Out not only explains the problems associated with world supply, it also engages the average the person to contribute to the solution.

Water is the only resource for which there is no substitute. The world's water resources are plagued with a great variety of problems, and they typically fall into one of five broad groups- availability, quantity, quality, distribution, and competing agendas. Rich countries are increasingly finding themselves pitted against poor countries for limited water resources. In many instances, large and wasteful consumers are taking needed, precious quantities from others to slake their insatiable demand. Furthermore, more societies are reaching farther and farther to acquire this precious and critical resource.

Tapped Out has a number of favorable attributes. The book introduces the reader to the problem in an easy to understand manner. All technical terms are clearly defined as they are presented, and the book succeeds immensely in achieving its stated goal- eliciting the reader's interest in water issues. Moreover, Mr. Simon goes beyond lamenting the situation, and offers practical solutions to the problem. Finally, Mr. Simon shows the reader how the average person can be part of the solution to the problem. The reader is not left feeling overwhelmed and powerless in the face of the sheer magnitude of the problem. As such, the book is a good call to action overall.

However, there are a few moderate demerits, primarily structural, to the text. First, Mr. Simon cites too many examples in the first half of the text. These examples, while informative, come one after another and at times made the reading rather plodding. Instead, each major point should have been isolated, described in general terms, and then two to three examples which elaborate on each point should have been cited. That way, the reader gets a true sense of the problem while at the same time learning and more importantly retaining the pertinent facts. Second, the book relies too much on text, making the book very monotonous at times. Pictures would have added considerable value to the text. In addition a global map that explicitly displayed the distribution of the world's water resources, as well as the areas where water shortages are a problem, would also have been helpful. Moreover, the inclusion of graphs depicting trends in population, water supply and water consumption would also have been useful. Finally, future editions of the text should include a more balanced discussion of the technical challenges associated with water purification, desalination, and energy requirements and costs.

While I agree in principle with many of the points that Mr. Simon raises in his book, I have very strong reservations about Mr. Simon's solution to the water supply problem. Unfortunately, American bays, coastlines, rivers and lakes have earned the dubious distinction of becoming our nation's 'Great Toilet'. Mr. Simon has very high hopes that one day in the near future, we will desalinate the dirty water from this make-shift natural toilet for the purposes of human consumption and agricultural production.

Given the current state of the art, it may not be possible to use reclaimed water or seawater on any appreciable scale to avert water shortages. Traditionally, wastewater treatment is used to bring microbial and organic loads down to a 'safe' level so that the wastewater can be discharged to natural water systems. These natural systems then do the rest, primarily via dilution, entrapment, and degradation processes. Considering the deplorable state of the nation's waterways and coastlines, a desalination plant on the coast would have to be immediately adjacent to and downstream of a wastewater treatment plant. Moreover, each step in the process would create waste- effluents that would either have to be disposed of or put in some way to use. Finally, the process would also require a dedicated energy source. Desalination schemes currently require large amounts of energy for their operation, and as they are envisioned, will require huge energy input. As such, I am afraid that these schemes will ultimately play into the already strong hand of the energy companies. Solar energy, while a possibility, depends on area, and a given area, usually quite large, is required to satisfy a very limited water demand. Should demand increase, one would have very little maneuvering room when looking to scale up a solar-driven process. Therefore, solar-driven processes may be extremely limited, leaving only fossil fuels and nuclear power to provide the necessary energy. As a result, the cost of desalinated water if deployed on a large scale would inevitably track the cost of energy very closely. Thus, I suspect that energy companies are salivating at the prospect of such large-scale desalination schemes becoming reality.

In conclusion, this book, along with J R McNeil's Something New Under the Sun, has forced me to seriously consider the social, ecological, and environmental consequences associated with the adoption and deployment of any techno-economic process. After reading this book, I am now one more person who is strongly motivated to work towards a practical solution to a problem that affects all of us in the global community.

Some progress in saving water resources is being made by removing dams-up to & including Glen Canyon Dam. Follow Simon's requests--last 3 pages-take action,this forboding crisis will be exacerbated by Y2K....

I purchased this book as a holiday gift for my child's teacher. She has a close but intense relationship with her mother, and I thought she would enjoy the topic. Now, I have my fingers crossed and am holding my breath a bit. The black and white photography is beautifully compelling. At times, it is excruciatingly sad (for example, the photo of a woman who has lost her daughter to a drunk driver sits alone in her child's room, another of a daughter hugging her mom's gravestone.)

The accompanying short profiles/ stories are tersely, crisply written. They can be truly uplifting, like one very personal tale, which recounts a woman's battle with breast cancer and how she later overcomes her shame in her daughters seeing her post-surgery breasts. Another tale tells of a daughter who has cared for her ailing mother at home for decades, changing diapers and preparing pureed food. Virtually all of the relationships, however, reveal palpable strains of deep-seated anger, regret or misunderstanding. Many of the women have suffered intensely; many have healed from their own bad marriages and divorces.

For a young woman like myself who now has a small daughter and who recently lost a mother, the book was absorbing though it strangely lacked hope. My favorite profile was of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg; she seems like a type A mom but happy with her family and the personal and career choices she has made. Her daughter teases her mother, but seems secretly grateful for the upbringing she received. You sense that they appreciate each other, despite differences.

If you are considering this book for a friend, it would probably be most appreciated by someone who has survived many ups and downs with her mom. Those mother and daughter pairs who pal around together and who consider themselves good friends may be strangely put off by the tragedy and simmering warfare in between many of the pictures.

This book is special to me because my Great Grandmother and her daughters (as well as my grandmother who raised me) are in the book. My "Granny" will be 100 years old in 1999 and has been an inspiration to us all. I've often thought her story should be told and while this is a very short version among many I was pleased with the gentle way they captured her essence.

Those cover girls look familiar... ah yes, they are both tour guides at Trinity College. I heard they were in a a doublemint ad recently, so I guess they're pretty typecast. If you ask me, I think they ate a little to much hay growing up.

Who would have thought that the girls of Cliff's dreams would someday take the modeling plunge. Thank god for split embryos.

Boomer

I was very critical of the first joint effort by Mr. Cussler and Mr. Kemprecos ("Serpent") because it was subpar by Cussler standards. I also thought he had let himself fall into the "franchise trap", where he stamps his name on books authored by someone else and watches his credibility and reader base suffer. However, I wound up giving Mr. Cussler the benefit of the doubt and read "Blue Gold".

"Blue Gold" is the second novel featuring the NUMA team of Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala. As with the first book, however, one cannot help but continually visualize Dirk Pitt and Al Giordino - the descriptions of the characters are that similar. Oh, there are some minor differences, but they only serve to make you feel that you are reading the adventures of "Pitt Lite" and "Giordino Lite". The Trouts, minor characters spotlighted both here and in "Serpent", are wholly unappealing because they don't bring much to the overall story, other than an excuse to print an extra chapter or two revolving around a chase or escape.

This book is much improved over "Serpent" mostly due to its, shall we say, more judicious use of detail. Whereas "Serpent" was bogged down by mind-numbing, superficial detail, "Blue Gold" is free of most of these anchors. The end result is a story that reads slightly closer to the Cussler adventures we fans are accustomed to, and moves along at a much quicker pace. The plot is average, though the closing sequence is exciting and unique, with an interesting turn of events not typically found in the Dirk Pitt tales.

All in all, the "sophomore" Kurt Austin adventure is an average effort. It is much improved over the first outing in this series, but continues to be vexed by too many similarities in characters and plot. It seems to me that for this series to fly, Mr. Cussler needs to ditch Mr. Kemprecos and just write the stories himself. Also, if he does indeed have this wealth of material for stories, he should have not bothered creating Kurt Austin and stuck with the tried-and-true Dirk Pitt. After all, Cussler claims Pitt to be his "alter ego", and that familiarity has lent itself to great storytelling. Creating a "mirror" alter ego in the persona of Austin has not had the same effect, in my opinion.

I will continue to anticipate and read the Dirk Pitt novels. However, this series has proven to be a general disappointment, and makes me less inclined to shell out a few extra dollars in between Pitt adventures. I hope that Mr. Cussler will realize that he can't keep running with a knockoff version of the character that made him a top-notch author. His reputation will suffer otherwise, and he will quickly find that even lending his name to generate sales won't work the same magic.

An entire pod of whales surface, dead, in the middle of a boat race; they died because they swam in too warm waters ... In the Amazonian jungle, a pair of NUMA scientists (the Trouts) find a dead Indian in a canoe; in his bag lay an array of tools and gadgets far more sophisticated than you would expect ... Thus starts the story that pits Kurk Austin and Joe Zavala against Brynhild Sigurd, a beautiful Scandinavian amazon who, as head of a large multinational corporation, wants control of the world's fresh water supply.

After the fiasco of Serpent, I was very reluctant to get into the NUMA Files again. However, in Blue Gold, Cussler and Kemprecos give Kurt and Joe a life of their own, instead of writing them as being Dirk and Al look-alike. The characters have similarities, but not so much as to distract a Dirk Pitt fan from the story. Plot and subplots link perfectly as in all Cussler novels I have read, and the pace is typical of the previous novels. The difference in personality between Austin and Pitt makes this story standout against the typical formula of a Pitt adventure with refreshing twists and turns. It is not a Dirk Pitt adventure, but I would definitely recommend it to a Dirk Pitt fan (and I am one of them).

I realise my title might be seen a criminal to fans of the erstwhile Dirk Pitt, but I can't favor him over Kurt Austin, or vice versa. Cussler is a formulaic as ever but it works! From the opening taster with Austin's counterpart love of high speed boats to Dirk's of antique cars, Kurt sets off with his own Giordino (Zavala) to find out why whales are dying in super-heated water. They run up against Brynhild, Gogstad's Scandinavian corporate meglomaniac with a penchant for controlling the world's freshwater, a Viking fixation (the references to Valhalla throughout are a nice echo of the latest Dirk Pitt installment) and dubious taste in hirlings (the Kradzik brothers). Throw in the husband and wife NUMA team of Gamay and Paul with a sizable side trip of their adventures in Venezula rescuing the local white goddess, Professor Francesca Cabral, a trip into Mexico and all culminating in a battle at Lake Tahoe and you have a rip-roaring Cussler yarn.
Sure, some will still favor Pitt over Austin but Paul Kemprecos' addition to Cussler's skills have created no poor imitation at all. Hopefully Kurt and Joe's adventures will be as long as Pitt's. Valhalla told us Dirk Pitt was getting older. Kurt Austin is his younger counterpart.