Thanks to this well written book I was able to learn about the Bonanza aircraft. The revalation of this book has come to me in a critical time for me - working hard to get the endorsment of my flight instructor to be signed in my logbook.

Thanks again for the author who allows me to reveal the secrets of the Beechcraft masterpiece.

Beautifully written with thought and caring of an island where the author grew up. His pictures help you to visualize the beauty of this magnificient place as viewed through his eyes. Written in a most excellent way!

Every year since 19??, a book is published that celebrates the best essays of that year. These essays range in topic from science to law, from art to sociology. Reading this year's edition, I am particularly impressed. Of course, not every essay is for everyone. However, even the essays that have nothing to do with my background I have found to be interesting at the least, compelling and mind-rattling at best. It is worth buying the book for even a few: 'The Art of the Nap,' 'The Trouble with Wilderness' 'Influenza 1918'.

Everyone remembers the Bhopal Gas Tragedy. Or at least most people do. Like all baby boomers remember about the JFK assassination or Neil Armstrong's landing on the moon. Exactly like the other two history altering events, news of the disaster hit the headlines all over the world. All those who read, saw or heard about it heaved a sigh of despair. In brief, for the benefit of those who are challenged on their recall abilities, the Bhopal gas tragedy involved the release of Methyl Isocyanate gas from a pesticide manufacturing plant in Bhopal, Central India. Forty tonnes of the poisonous cloud, that was released from the factory settled over the low-lying areas of the city. Within minutes innocent people, living in surrounding shanties and squatter camps, were transported into a lethal gas chamber facing a holocaust. It happened around midnight on December the 2nd, 1984. By sunrise of the 3rd over 2000 people lay dead or dying in homes and on the streets.

Morehouse and Subramanium's book on the Bhopal Gas Tragedy is a well-researched study about the Union Carbide and the Bhopal Gas Tragedy. The book starts with the history of Union Carbide, a company that came to colonial India in 1905. The company started the manufacture of "Eveready Flashlight Batteries" in 1926. "Eveready" and portable lighting became synonymous and was remembered with fondness in households across the cities, towns of villages of India. In 1969 the by now huge multinational corporation started a plant in Bhopal, to manufacture pesticides. By 1983, the company had 14 plants in India manufacturing chemicals, pesticides, batteries and other products. In December 1984, Union Carbide brought permanent darkness to the lives of thousands of residents in Bhopal, maimed and injured several hundred thousands more. The events of that fateful night left a swath of destruction and desolation that has only been rivaled by the nuclear explosions at Hiroshima.

What Morehouse and Subramanium have done is to take us backstage to the events that happened at the plant before the release of the gas, and the response of the various agencies after the disaster. The authors help us get a clearer understanding of what led to the disaster, the chaos and confusion that secondarily led to failure of the relief organizations. Later they explore the tangled web of litigation that followed. The authors critically evaluate the plant and point out the defects in the design of the plant, as well as the failures in the safety devices that led to exothermic chain reaction that caused the accumulation of the large quantities of the poisonous gas, and its final release into the atmosphere.

According to the authors, and this has been substantiated by several other publications, besides the failure of the plant management several other factors compounded the tragedy. Relief measures were botched, disaster sirens not blown, orderly evacuation not planned all leading to chaos and confusion. Later, lack of experience in dealing with mass disasters or knowledge on how to treat the suffering significantly influenced the mortality and morbidity. Political considerations paralyzed the Governments relief efforts while well meaning volunteer efforts were perceived as threats to Governmental stability. The post disaster record keeping and documentation was conducted so haphazardly as to prove worthless. Even today we remain with inadequate scientific evaluation of the disaster to develop preventive scenarios.

In later chapters, the authors describe the jurisdictional battles, the attempts by Union Carbide's Corporate lawyers to disown the subsidiary, transfer the case to India and several other legal maneuverings. The last three chapters answer two important questions (a) Can it happens here in the US? Yes, of course it can happen here, it has happened here at a subliminal level but a major tragedy could strike any chemicals factory in say Thailand or New Jersey, any day. The other question gives very creative information on what can we do to prevent future Bhopal's from happening. The book was written with Subramanium covering the first set of chapters about the situation in India and Morehouse writing the latter half. However, the book reads very seamlessly and has an absorbing narrative. It is eminently readable and extremely thought provoking.

The book is a classic study about the cause and effect of environmental disasters. It is also a clarion call for action by concerned activist groups for legislation on the "Right To Know Laws" about hazardous chemicals that are manufactured, stored or utilized in a community. Despite the numerous reassurances from the chemical manufacturers, occurrence of another Bhopal like tragedy cannot be ruled out with certainty. The authors suggest, preventing a future environmental disaster from happening can only be done by concerned public action, effective legislation and efficient enforcement of safety regulations. As they describe it, the calamity in Bhopal could have been used as an opportunity to revamp the existing imperfections in the hazardous chemicals industry.

Unfortunately the legal maneuvering in the Bhopal case precluded the judiciary from giving the chemical industry a sound warning. Those in the know of the turn of events know that the legal settlement failed in this important aspect, adding insult to injury heaped upon the citizens of Bhopal. Ultimately, the judicial failure in censuring the chemical industry absolved it of responsibility in vaporizing a city. Moreover as it did not serve a punitive warning to Multi-national corporations, it condoned the view that it was okay to place corporate greed above interests of the people and, company bottom line above human dignity. This book eloquently reveals that man really is at the mercy of mammon.

THE BEST BOOK I EVER READ!! EVERYONE MUST READ THIS!!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Tales from the Featherbed. Bill Smith and Vaughn Ward managed to find just the right blend of practical, whimsical and good old-fashioned fun anecdotal stories. I couldn't put the book down until I had read them all. A wonderful, folksy look at life in the North Country in days past. I'm very pleased to have found this on Amazon so that I could write this recommendation.

Dr Dean is one of the world's leading physicians in the new field of anti-aging medicine. One of the most important markers to determine how fast or indeed how slowly someone is aging is being determined through the use of clinical tests which include assays of blood, urine, hair etc., but also other markers such as memory tests, reaction times and skin thickness/ bone density etc. For the first time it is possible to determine someones "biological age" instead of just their chronological age. Dr. Dean explores all these avenues in this book, it explains in detail how to accomplish these tests and frankly should be on every doctor's shelf who has an interest in this "ultimate form of preventative medicine."

I was 18 years old and the recipient of the UNCF/ Reader's Digest 1st Place award for poetry in March of1968. Among those sending letters of congratulations was Dr.Killens. He suggested I forego offers to publish immediately and develop my craft and poetic signature. He suggested I work to become a "long distance runner." Continued interest in the Black Southern Voices anthology, including request to read my poem "Son Child" from the collection on a recent tour for another book reminded me of the value of Dr.Killen's foresight, and Dr. Jerry Ward's insight. Read at least a portion this book aloud during Black History Month 1998. John Milton Wesley

This is one of Dickens' most mature, sophisticated, and modern works, largely free of the sentimentality and crowd-pleasing melodrama for which he is known. An angry work filled with spleen about the inhumanity of the legal system and the way it grinds people up and spits them out, Bleak House is also notable for the strong ray of hope it holds out in the person of its protagonist, Esther Summerson, and her guardian, Tom Jarndyce. The story concerns an interminable legal case, Jarndyce v. Jarndyce, that has been grinding on for so long that nobody involved with it really knows what it's about anymore, and any money that could possibly be won by any of the litigants has long been swallowed up by legal fees. Caught up helplessly in this incomprehensible mess are Tom Jarndyce and his orphaned wards Esther Summerson and the kissing cousins John and Ada Clare. Also involved in the affair in some mysterious way are the haughty and aristocratic Dedlocks and an enigmatic legal clerk known only as Nemo--the Latin word for "no one." Part mystery, part legal thriller, Bleak House is also one of Dickens' most satisfying books for a modern reader. As a spirited indictment of the legal system it ranks with Nicholas Nickleby and Our Mutual Friend as among Dickens' strongest statements on the side of the poor and disenfranchised against the faceless powers that would crush them.

While this book might appeal to the reader becuase of its size ( around 300 pages ), I found that it can be more organized. The information is not presented in the best way for Neither Step 2 nor Step 3.
Although it has some nice chapters ( radiology ), it is lacking detailed information about crucial subjects ( sexually transmitted diseases, although mentioned in a table , it is not presented in a suitable fashion for the USMLEs, the psychiatry is not very organized either ) .
This book is an average book, and you are better off with other books ( crush the boards, Swansons ..etc)

This book helped me study for the USLME Step 2. It was quite extensive and was fairly easy to read. It also saved me a lot of time since I didn't have to read all of my textbooks again. I also used the following:
Microbiology Study Guide:Key Review Questions and Answers
ISBN: 0971999635
The second book helped my study group and I pass with the tricky microbiology portion of the test. I highly recommend both books.