I skimmed this book before a recent interview. The book gave some excellent ideas and definitely pushes you in the direction of getting additional information. I used the book to see why I wasn't getting callbacks. From reading the book, I realized that my "honest" approach to answering interview questions was hurting me. I answered all the questions in the book using more general responses and keeping all responses job related - never about me personally.

The book itself doesn't give you all the information. I looked on the internet to find out more details. The book, however, points you in the right direction and gives you and idea of what's wrong with your interview technique, cover letter and resume.

I have gotten a few jobs but this is the first time EVER in my life that an interviewer told me that I interviewed well and I was the type of person he was looking for. He told me that he didn't have but one position and, if I wasn't chosen, he wants to "keep me in the mix" for future job openings.

The interviewer made this decision after only about 5 questions. Normally, they ask me a ton of questions and I never hear back again.

I highly recommend this book.

Todd's book offers a one-stop solution for a pretty complicated process! He simplifies job hunting and helps motivate you along the way. The book's biggest asset is how it combines so much material that would normally be found in many different places. I've read 5-10 different job hunting/career manuals and this is by far the best book not only for your money, but your time! JOB WELL DONE!

After being a victim of corporate downsizing, I realized I needed some solid business advice on how to land a job fast! It is amazing to me that Mr. Bermont could pack so much useful information in such a concise and clear manner. Every single tip he gave made sense and was easy to follow. This is a great book... you should buy it if you need to find a job FAST!

I can't recommend this book ENOUGH if you're going to take the Windows 2000 Professional exam (70-210). Authors did a SUPERB job of filtering out all the unnecessary garbage and getting straight to the point. My time is precious, and I needed to pass this exam to move to a new salary level. This book was the best investment I made! I mistakenly bought someo ther books to help me with this exam also. I returned the others. I will keep this book forever - as a reference it's fantatsic, too!! You really need this book if your goal is passing 70-210 the first time around. Good luck, and thank you to the authors!!!

Never having used Windows 2000 except a very limited time with a Professional Client, I thought the process of obtaining my Win 2000 track MCSE would be an up hill battle. But, with the help of this cram and the 70-210 Study Guide from Syngress / Osborne / McGraw Hill I passed the exam flawlessly.

The only problems I had with the book were minor technical errors that conflicted with my other Study Guide and had to be resolved on the Microsoft site...but I stress the errors were MINOR. I also wish they stressed the unattended/Remote install options more in depth...due to the fact the a large percentage of my exam concentrated on RIS.

But all and all this guide, as well as a decent study guide are enough for a power user to pass this exam with very little problem.

I read this book in the two weeks prior to taking the 70-210 exam, I am currently taking classes at a local college for the MCSE certification, I have all the Microsoft Official Curriculum books and I can tell you that this book is a lot better than the MOCs.

Not only brings all the MOC material together in a very concise way, but makes it easy to understand and digest.

I have a couple years experience as a Help Desk Support technician and I used Windows 2000 extensively, but I still learned a lot of last minute details on this book.

I highly recommend it to anyone looking to obtain their certification.

Good luck!

Science Under Siege: The Politicians' War on Nature and the Truth. By Todd Wilkinson. Johnson Press, Boulder, CO. 343 pp.

Reviewed by Pete Geddes, Program Director, Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment

From the Civil War until roughly Earth Day, commodity production dominated federal land management. This was often at the expense of ecological integrity, economic efficiency, and social sustainability. Todd Wilkinson's new book Science Under Siege: The Politicians' War on Nature and the Truth adds personal ethics to this list. He demonstrates how bureaucratic and political pressures sacrifice both environment quality and careers to political expediency.

Wilkinson, a western correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor has been following western environmental issues for the last ten years. Science Under Siege reaffirms that bureaucracies function ultimately as machines to protect and perpetuate their budgets and co-dependent political interests. Wilkinson tells the stories of eight well intentioned and hardworking "whistleblowers" and the personal and professional price they pay when their convictions confront the leviathan. The stories of political manipulation and agency retaliation are depressing but important reading for those seriously interested in federal land management reform or bureaucratic pathologies more generally.

For readers east of the Mississippi River, it's important to understand west of the 100th Meridian, the federal government controls of half the Western lands. At the turn of the century, the West was the staging ground for experiments in Progressive Era conservation. Through "scientific management" benevolent, centralized bureaucracies (e.g., the Forest Service) were to stop the abuses of the nation's natural resources. This was a well intentioned, but naive idea. Instead an "iron triangle" emerged among Congress, federal agencies, and clientele (chamber of commerce/stock grower/mining alliances). As this alliance hardened, the federal agencies, dependent upon the political process for budgetary survival, bowed to political pressures. This may come as a surprise to those who believe it's the mission of the Forest Service to preserve 191 million acres of national forests for "future generations". But as Wilkison documents, the interest of these agencies comes at the expense of national taxpayers, sustainable ecosystems, and agency employees.

The danger in a book like this is that Wilkinson opens himself to charges of being a pawn for disgruntled employees. For most of the book Wilkison avoids this trap. He insulates himself in two important ways: First, Wilkinson chooses carefully. He selected eight subjects from a field of 110. To each profile Wilkinson brings in a range of supporting characters. This adds both substance and a soothing tone. Second, by profiling scientists who publish in professional journals, Wilkinson avoids "he-said, she-said" mud-slinging.

His profile of David Mattson is illustrative. A former Yellowstone National Park grizzly bear researcher, Mattson is an internationally respected as a leading authority on grizzly bear populations dynamics. He arrived at his office one morning to find it ransacked; data gone, computer confiscated, and personal files locked away. Mattson's offense? His research was leading him to conclude that grizzly bear populations in and around Yellowstone may be declining over the long-term. This was counter to the official line preached by bear recovery coordinator Chris Servheen. Servheen maintains that grizzlies in Yellowstone have multiplied since the species was listed as endangered in 1975. Mattson recently opened his data to criticisms of the entire scientific community by publishing his results in the journal Ecology. Servheen has the same opportunity.

The ultimate vindication for Wilinkson's whistleblowers may be found on the land itself. Readers can judge the veracity of former Forest Service fisheries "combat" biologist Al Espinoza by visiting the Clearwater National Forest in central Idaho. They can see the steep slopes, denuded of trees from top to bottom, and the miles of logging roads responsible for spilling sediment into fragile salmon streams. (I spent a summer reviewing appeals of Forest Service decisions on the Clearwater and provided Wilkinson information.)

In the patchwork pattern of clearcuts on the national forest of Oregon and Washington, whistelblower Jeff DeBonis made his mark. DeBonis, an up and coming Forest Service timber sale planer, was responsible for "getting the cut out" in the region's old-growth forests. The Pacific Northwest is the "Big League" of professional forestry. Here both the trees and the stakes for meeting timber quotas are big. Sometimes the results are disastrous. For example, the Forest Service recently "accepted blame" for trashing the entire Fish Creek watershed on Oregon's Mount Hood National Forest. It will cost taxpayers $5.4 million to restore areas where logging caused some of the "worst landslides in the region" and runs of wild salmon have "been nearly wiped out".

After a crisis of conscience DeBonis left the Forest Service and founded the Association of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics (AFSEEE). He notes, "For many people who wear the green (Forest Service) uniform, the working environment is like living in East Germany before the Berlin Wall fell". This is a predictable consequence when decisions are made in the political arena. Here, political considerations trump ecological, ethical, and economic factors.

Without explicit reference, Science Under Siege reaffirms the thirty year-old message of public choice economists Noble Laureate James Buchanan, Mancur Olson, Gordon Tullock, and others. They described how concentrated, motivated interest groups forming around economic benefits, have significant advantages in political struggles against more disorganized groups. The powerful analytical tools of economics can help explain the causes of maladies environmentalist condemn: money-losing clearcuts on the national forests; federal dams that don't begin to cover operation costs (let alone the amortized costs of construction); federal agents killing predators such as mountain lions and bears on federal lands grazed by livestock at a huge ecological and economic expense, and a gaggle of other environmentally costly practices. The poignant stories in Science Under Siege, provide further motivation for removing resource management from the political process.

From a review that appeared in Bear News, the journal of the Great Bear Foundation: Calling science "a moral compass for making the right decisions," Science Under Siege argues convincingly thatpublic agencies have lost sight of true north. This book is very hard on bureaucrats--many of them professional scientists who have lost their way--and on political manipulations by elected officials and corporate lobbyists who care not one whit for the bears or habitat! This is an extremely good book; it hits hard but it cleverly lets the bad guys hang themselves with their own words while promoting the good science, the good scientists and government officials. It also makes one sad to realize how the concepts of civil service and specialized agencies have been so destroyed by politicians and Big Money. President Nixon started the trend of replacing professional agency heads with politicial cronies--a problem that is still growing today. Dave Mattson, "the hero of the bears," who studied grizzlies in Yellowstone National Park and others deserve all the credit this book gives them.

His subject is the fate of scientists whose research brings them into conflict with the policies of the agencies they work for, especially the Forest Service, The Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Wilkinson's profiles of responsible scientists dislodged because of political pressure create a portrait of environmental irresponsibility-comtempt, even-within the bureaucracies whose ostensible mission is to serve the public interest on federally owned lands.

What can I say? This book has literally made me--and my friends--laugh out loud. I just about exploded every time I read it. It was my main source of happiness, laughter, and joy.
Unfortunately...
I made the devastating mistake to leave this book downstairs when eating breakfast. My mother found it, and I asked her where it was. She told me that she had taken it away from me because of looking in it and reading some of the articles. That brings me to the only drawback to this book: profanity. Despite being absolutely hysterical, The Onion is filled with bad words. Sex is occasionally mentioned too. Why can't my mother understand that there are hardly any funny books that don't have at least a few swears here and there? But, anyway...
You'll chuckle at the headlines. You'll giggle at the STATshots. You'll practically bowl over at the headlines mentioned on the sidebar (whose articles aren't in the book anyway). However, the real gem of Ad Nauseam is the series of articles where the only sentence is "Passerby were amazed at the unusually large amounts of blood". Most of these articles have a caption written in those little caption boxes that articles have. Instead of the normal quotes, there will be something like "All the good priests are either saying married women or gay", "I'll do anything easy to lose weight", or "I don't know *which* boatload of sailors I love!" and a lot more.
And, who wouldn't love the horoscopes? (I ADORE them). You've just got to like the People's Opinions section, and the lists.
If you don't mind profanity, get Ad Nauseam today!

The Onion has done it again!

After three hysterical releases of Our Dumb Century, Finest News Reporting, and (my personal favorite) Dispatches From the Tenth Circle, The Onion has published a cry-out-loud-it's-so-funny book filled with satire on many subjects-ranging from September 11th (Hijackers Surprised to Find Selves in Hell) to religion (God Diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder) to fast food (Developmentally Disabled Burger King Employee Only Competent Worker). However, if you are easily offended, don't buy this book. Somewhere or other within these 264 pages of sheer brilliance, you will get offended. Otherwise, buy it without a doubt, as well as the other Onions. You won't be disappointed.

In a time when picking up a newspaper will present you with just about any horror story imaginable (terrorists, nuclear war, snipers, child abductors), nothing is as much of an antidote as The Onion. I have been following this mock-newspaper ever since Dispatches From The Tenth Circle, and I have never once been disappointed. This volume begins a new series that chronicles all of The Onion's stories in the past year. Open it up to ANY page, and you are guarenteed at least one laugh, if not multiple fits of laughter. Articles range from ground-breaking front-page news ("No Jennifer Lopez News Today"), to Opinion pieces ("I Bet I Wouldn't Be Laughing So Hard If It Was Me In That Fire"), to advice columns ("Ask A Man Getting Yelled At By His Wife Over The Phone At Work"), plus horoscopes, infographs, and tips for everything from pet care to toy safety. It's everything you have ever wanted in a newspaper, but could never get because, let's face it, the news is getting worse all of the time. And included in this volume is the amazing coverage of post 9/11 (with articles such as "Hijackers Surprised To Find Selves In Hell"). While we almost feel as though we should be offended by them making light of such a tragedy, The Onion does it in such a way that it actually makes us feel better. It's always nice when something puts a smile on your face, and that's exactly what this book does. Most of the time you don't even have to read the articles - sometimes just reading the headlines is humor enough. If you have not yet read anything from The Onion, I am urging you to do so, because you will not be disappointed. However, I will say that The Onion's humor is NOT for everyone, and anyone who is easily offended will probably find this book to be despicable. But for everybody else, it's just a great pick-me-up.

I think this book was great. I give it 4 stars. I would recommend this book to a friend, who likes adventure books. This is a book about 2 kids who kidnap their parents because they don't spend enough time with them. It is also about these bad guys trying called Nut Bombers trying to kill their family. My favorite part was when they kidnapped their parents.

In this book, Kidnap Kids, Steven and Benjy(two brothers)have a mom and a dad,but their parents are always working and they really never see them. After awhile they get tired of not seeing them so they do something about it. I thought that this bookwas great. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes adventurous books. By: Macy

Kidnap Kids is an excellent book, I recommend this book at least 6 graders. It is about these two kides named Benjy and Steven who handcuff their parents because they never spend time with them. Will they are at the cabin the Nut Bomers are after them.I hope you like this book.
By Nikki

Taking today's headlines and combining them with fictional faces and more than enough quotes and statistics to terrify his readers, Todd Strasser presents his newest YA novel, Give A Boy A Gun (2000). The novel is a combination of statements given by witnesses to a well thought out gun attack by 2 teens against their peers and teachers at a school dance. The book is similar to Making up Megaboy (Virginia Walter, 1998) in that the story is presented from multiple perspectives versus narrative form. But unlike Megaboy, this book takes you inside the lives of its killers and gives their rationale for their actions as well as their intimate suicide letters. This is an incredibly well researched and thought out book. It will definitely raise the eyebrows of many parents because of its violence level and subject matter. It was written for YA's and will make them think long and hard about gun control, but I feel that librarians and teachers alike would be remiss if they did not read it for themselves. Includes further sources for information. Partial proceeds from the book will go to gun control charities. Highly recommended for older teens and adults. Not for the weak of stomach. A definite best book candidate. Controversy will follow this book wherever it goes.

If you are looking for a great book, I highly recomend Give A Boy A Gun. This story talks about two young boys, Brendan and Gary, who are picked on by the high school jocks. Brendan and Gary are like two peas in a pod, but they are still a little different. Gary is always depressed, and Brendan is into guns, bombs, and gory video games. Soon they realize that the only way to solve their problems is with guns, bombs, drugs , and alchohol! Then one night at a school dance they hold all of the kids hostage, and they have guns and bombs. I am not going to tell you the rest, you'll have to read it to find out!

When I started reading the book, I was amazed to discover that it was not a non fiction book. The style and wording of the author makes the book extremely plausible, and the fact that it is based on true occurences adds to that. In "Give a Boy a Gun", Todd Strasser tells the story of two boys who hold their school hostage during a dance. The reason: revenge on the football players and teachers. The book is written from the view points of friends and family, school staff, e-mails between the gunmen and chatroom conversations between the gunmen and their friends. At the bottom of most every page are facts about violence and shootings. At the back of the book is a section about violent shootings and occurences that happened while the book was being written, and another brief section of certin school shootings.

I honestly was surprised to see all the positive reviews of this book. I guess that most women who read it already know they are in a bad situation, and need the courage or validation to break off a bad relationship. Maybe they need to see themselves in the sad descriptions. But I didn't fall into that group.

I bought this book because I felt overwhelmed with the circumstances -- soon-to-be-ex-wife and kids and alimony, oh my! -- in my relationship. But my boyfriend's behavior didn't match any of the selfish scenarios the author describes -- he was great.

Divorce, and dating someone in the process of it, raise really complex issues. I felt the author tried to simplify everything too much with a one-size-fits-all approach. I would have loved some tips for getting through this hard time, even if your boyfriend is doing everything that he can -- how to personally cope -- but the advice is mostly restricted to what you should do when _his_ behavior is less than exemplary.

But for those women who are dating jerks, this book could be the wake-up call that they need.

This book acknowledges that women fall in love with divorcing men every day, and provides strategies for dealing with that situation's unusual pitfalls. I was afraid that the authors were going to tell me I was doing something wrong or bad, but they were on my team from page one. They do a great job of combining concern for the woman's emotional well-being with a realistic focus on keeping the relationship alive and healthy. _How to Survive_ is a very practical book, providing checklists and straight talk, not distant theoreticals. I learned about myself, my boyfriend, our relationship and his marriage from this book. I feel like I have new tools for dealing with this unique situation. I can't recommend _How to Survive Your Boyfriend's Divorce_ highly enough.

This is a great book, and it is based on a true premise: if you are a dating female, you have better than a 50:50 chance of running into a man that is separated but not divorced. I know this is true from personal experience. However, many of the tips in the book have a wider application, for example, any relationship that is struggling with communication issues, family difficulties and committment phobias. Being "smart" in any relationship is not always easy and remembering that "your happiness in in YOUR hands" often gets lost along the way. My copy of this book is underlined, check marked, highlighted and dog-earred. It is an excellent read, great style and upbeat. I would recommend it for anyone in a dating situation, especially for those dating separated (or recently divorced) men.

Probably the most important book ever written has as much to say to us today as it did in 1766 . Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nation" establishes the theoretical framework for Capitalism covering every aspect of an economic system that has created the highest standard of living known to man. Adam Smith shows how the interplay between labor, stock and land serve to generate the wealth of a nation. The keys to wealth are freedom, productive men, productive stock, and productive land. Smith says that the role of government is threefold - to protect the land from foreign invasion, enforce contracts and maintain a physical and legal infrastructure that promotes commerce and investment. Government produces nothing and therefore the expense of government reduces the wealth of a nation. Taxes are akin to a proportional reduction in the productivity of labor, stock and land and so should be kept at a minimum in order to increase the wealth of a nation. Any government role beyond the promotion and protection of investment reduces the wealth of a nation and of its people Adam Smith would oppose the many government programs that litter the landscape of the Federal Government today. Welfare, Social Security, education spending by the government, and other non-defense or infrastructure related expenditures diminish the productivity of the people and consequently their wealth. The majority of the people in the United States would have been much wealthier had it not been for these programs.
Adam Smith was also a proponent of free trade. He understood that countries varied in the productivity of the land and the people and that only through free trade could the advantages inherent in different lands and peoples be harnessed to increase the wealth of nations. He opposed guilds and unions which only protected the few at the expense of the many and consequently reduced the wealth of a nation by reducing the productivity of its people.
Adam Smith was truly a man for all season and for all time. It's unfortunate that our politicians and educators are more familiar and enamored by the idiot Karl Marx than they are with Adam Smith. For if they revered Adam Smith as much as they revere Marx we would all be wealthier and happier.

Adam Smith's "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" is quite possibly the finest work of economic theory and capitalism there is. Not only does Smith cover a lot of theories, but his language is also excellent, making "The Wealth of Nations" not only an interesting, but also a very easy book to read.

Just as interesting as his discussions on economic theories is the glimpse we get of 18th century Great Britain.

To understand capitalism, this book is a must-read; to understand the world, understanding capitalism is a must; to save the world, implementation of laissez-faire capitalism is a must.

I am reviewing the Modern Library Classics version with an introduction by former labor secretary Robert Reich. To minimize repetition, the differences for this version: This massive book is complete and unabridged (all five books). There is a great added feature in the form of small summary notes in the margin that accompany each paragraph. Adam Smith was a masterful writer of prose and communicates some of the most important economic and philosophical ideas in the history of western civilization. Economic theory never read so beautifully.

An interesting choice for an introduction is Robert Reich. He is one of the few intellectuals from the left, and while I disagree with him more often than not, I respect his thought process. He offers his interpretation of Smith and how the ideas found in TWoN fit neatly with his positions. Selective reasoning or not, Reich does offer a nice summary line: "In these times, as when Adam Smith wrote, it is important to remind ourselves of the revolutionary notion at the heart of Smith's opus-that the wealth of a nation is measured not by its accumulated riches, but by the productivity and living standards of all its people." Nicely said and I agree. I just disagree with Reich and his ilk on how the "wealth" of the modern nation is achieved. Adam Smith offers the roadmap, but it is up to us to keep lawmakers in DC or [insert any central government here] from regulating and taxing us to death --relegating Smith's work to the dust bin.

I met author Trisha Todd this weekend at her book signing and again when she read from her book in Charlotte, NC. I had just finished reading The Drive the night before. The book is sensual, heartbreaking and then hopeful. The honesty with which she writes impressed me. When I spoke with her, I told her she was a very brave lady. It's one thing to write openly and honestly about your experiences and feelings in a personal journal or diary, but it takes a lot of guts to put it out there for everyone to read.

She said her editor argued with her about including flashes to earlier times in her life instead of just staying focused on the situation with Annie. You were right to keep it in Trisha. The background information explains where you're coming from, where your roots are, why you react and feel the way you do.

Also, the descriptions of the surroundings, the people, and everything else in the book makes you feel like you can see, smell, taste and touch them all. Trisha is truly an artist with words. Thank you again for your heartfelt book and for taking the time to come to Charlotte and for speaking with me. I look forward to your next book and hopefully another visit.

A friend of mine recently suggested that I read 'The Drive'. I'd never heard of Todd, but thought it might be interesting. It did read like a journal and yes, a journey. But to where?
After living many years as a part of the 'lesbian community' I share what appeared to be her frustrations where finding the 'right' woman were concerned. I applaud her for her honesty. She allowed the reader to see a sadness too often seen in our world where many Annies & Danielles exist.
An exploration of each attempt & failure with a reassessment along the way to perhaps to qualify the effort.
By book's end, I was still uncertain as to how much she'd learned about herself, beyond her obvious need for spirituality.
Perhaps that was it. Have faith in where you are going. Fate promises a fun filled ride. Just make sure to pay attention along the way.
I hope to see more from her

I met author Trisha Todd this weekend at her book signing and again when she read from her book in Charlotte, NC. I had just finished reading The Drive the night before. The book is sensual, heartbreaking and then hopeful. The honesty with which she writes impressed me. When I spoke with her, I told her she was a very brave lady. It's one thing to write openly and honestly about your experiences and feelings in a personal journal or diary, but it takes a lot of guts to put it out there for everyone to read.

She said her editor argued with her about including flashes to earlier times in her life instead of just staying focused on the situation with Annie. You were right to keep it in Trisha. The background information explains where you're coming from, where your roots are, why you react and feel the way you do.

Also, the descriptions of the surroundings, the people, and everything else in the book makes you feel like you can see, smell, taste and touch them all. Trisha is truly an artist with words. Thank you again for your heartfelt book and for taking the time to come to Charlotte and for speaking with me. I look forward to your next book and hopefully another visit.

I just passed WIN95 70-64 with an 877 using this as my main study guide. This book focuses on essentials, without providing tons of extraneous facts that won't be on the exam. I highly recommend that anyone prep-ing for an exam do as many scenario questions as he/she can find. He/she will also need to know a lot more about NT Server, WINS and DNS than expected--about 1/3 of my questions were on those issues. This book doesn't cover trust relationships or emphasize NT Domain stuff quite enough for 5 stars, but it is better than the Que "Exam Series" Guide that is my other prep. guide. I will be purchasing the other Marcus Burton books in this series.

This book can be used to pass the Windows 95 MCP exam (70-63), with no other books. Having said that, there are a some mistakes, and an additional book would help to spot and correct these. I used the Windows 95 Resource Kit, which is an excellent reference book anyway. My only real criticism are the practice questions. They are far too simplistic. The exams in the test are much more scenario based, and are a bit of a suprise if you have only read this book. In spite of this, I passed the exam first time.

After flunking the exam twice, I turned to this book. After reviewing all of the chapters, all of the confusing items that I had encountered during the exam were answered for me! I had just a few questions and Mr. Barton put everything in prospective for me!! This is one book that should at least complement your existing study guides! I have every confidence that I will now pass my exam 70-064! Thanks Marc for a no-nonsense approach to passing the Windows 95 exam!!