Charities and charitable donations: An evaluation of Canadian tax treatment

Customer Reviews:

A surprising read..a solid crime thriller..........2003-10-08

Knowing a little bit about the character of the Human Target, Christopher Chance (a man who will take on your identity for the right price), it's surprising to read a really good yarn involving the character coming out. Here, that matter of taking on other people's identities takes a bizarre psychological twist. Chance is hired to impersonate a famous actor who's dealing with a vicious extortionist. Unfortunately, things take a creepy turn when this actor's son is discovered to be kidnapped...by the extortionist. And did I mention that extortionist appears to be dead? So, Chance is forced into a mad dash to find the actor's son, infiltrate the extortionist's life, and stay alive. But how can Chance do all that while maintaining his own sanity? Let me put it this way: he can't. Peter Milligan (who wrote the previous Human Target mini-series) delivers one surprising turn after another that keeps you guessing until the very last page. Javier Pulido's artwork is good and clean, and conveys exactly what it needs to convey. Definitely a must for comic-book fans who like their stories hard-boiled and cold to the bone. (It's also good to see the Human Target has now an ongoing book, with Milligan and Pulido at the reins. Good stuff there as well.)

Fans Of Mission: Impossible Will Love Final Cut!.......2002-07-17

Since DC has become notorious for publishing Hardcover books that DO NOT deserve the Hardcover format (I, Paparazzi, Batman books The Chalice, Fortunate Son, Harvest Breed, Dark Knight Dynasty, Etc.), I was ready to be disappointed by Human Target: Final Cut. I enjoyed Milligan's previous Human Target story, however, so I thought I'd give it a try. Glad I did! After finishing it, I actually had to sit for a few minutes and try to digest what I'd just experienced. It was a truly staggering read!

Christopher Chance, the titular "Human Target", is just what his name implies: For the right price, Chance will assume the identity of people whose lives are endangered, using everything from fake mustaches and wigs, to Dermal Implants and Plastic Surgery. Here Chance assumes the identity of Dai Thomas, B-Movie actor, who is the third target of a homicidal Hollywood screenwriter trying to raise money for his movie project. After killing the stalker, Chance gets a bit of shocking news: The writer had kidnapped child-star Ronan White, and had hidden him away. With the kidnapper dead, Ronan will die of starvation, if he isn't dead already....and so Chance is forced to assume the identity of the killer/kidnapper, and descends into a maelstrom of drugs, murder, and nasty secrets.

The underlying theme of Chance being absorbed into the "Roles" he plays is dealt with by Writer Peter Milligan very convincingly, and the art by Javier Pulido is perfectly suited to the twisty story. Milligan manages to tie all of the loose ends up in an ending that is not only satisfying, but jaw-dropping. How often can you sat that a book left you speechless at the end? Simply an amazing effort all around. The book is divided into 4 comic-book sized chapters, which makes me think that this was originally intended as a mini-series, and someone at DC thought it was so good it merited the deluxe treatment. If that's the case, there may be hope for DC's hardcover line yet.... :)

Book Description

The rigors of Ornish, reduced to seventeen syllables. Weight Watchers in three lines of enigmatic verse. The paradoxof Atkins-shed pounds while wolfing down cheese, eggs, and meat-distilled to a Zen-like utterance. Or call it the path to losing oneself, in the language of finding oneself. Inspired by a weight loss guru's pithy sayings-Craving is the root of all suffering, Self-esteem = Sodium-Meredith Clair, an inveterate dieter, explores the connection between diet and haiku, eacha discipline that insists on cutting out excess, stripping down to the bare essentials, and counting, be it calories or syllables. The result is The Sound of One Thigh Clapping, a collection of tiny, hilarious moments in the epic journey to reach the Land of the Thin.

Customer Reviews:

Fun and Funny!.......2006-02-28

This is a fun little book. If you've ever been on the weight-loss rollercoaster you'll be able to relate to alot of the funny haikus.

It IS a humor book, not a how to!!.......2004-01-28

Why would anyone interpret this book as a how-to, when it is so clearly a humor book? Oy vey! This is the funniest book I've read in a long time. It's about time someone sent up dieting culture. If I read one more how-to diet book, I'm gonna barf!

The humorous side of dieting.......2004-01-03

Author Meredith Clair tried every fad diet and failed. Then she joined the Weight Watchers class run by Ertha, who ran the class like a Zen master and provided "thinspirations" that seemed to work. According to Ertha, dieting is about suffering and sacrifice, and the four enemies of diet success are temptation, sloth, jealousy, and weakness. So Clair decided to distill this diet wisdom, along with a lifetime of dieting experience, into haiku verse.

I would categorize this book as a humor book rather than a diet book since there is not a lot of advice on dieting how-to. The haiku itself does not flow very well compared to "Honku: the Zen Antidote to Road Rage" or other similar titles. That is why I did not give the book more stars than I did. However, it does touch upon every fad diet and frustration the typical dieter encounters, and it is quite funny. Here are some examples:

On temptation: Chocolate passes/too quickly over the tongue/preferring the hips.
On sloth: Training wheels, training/bras, and personal trainers./The Cycle of Life.
On weakness: Tasty pink grapefruit - /significantly less so/after the eighth day.
On jealousy: Consider Helen/whose face launched all that trouble./Better to be plain.
On resignation: We shall overcome./If we don't, there are always/elastic waistbands.

If you have ever struggled with losing weight, you will find lots of laughs here.

The Sound of One Thigh Clapping.......2003-12-21

This is so funny you'll want to keep flipping through to find more quips. It's a must have stocking stuffer. whether you're "stuffed" or not.

You'll laugh your love handles right off!!!.......2003-11-06

This is the most clever send-up of our obsession with weight and beauty to come along in a long, long time -- and she misses not a single diet, food item, or weight loss method! It's laugh-out-loud hilarious! Weight Watchers, Scarsdale Diet, Grapefruits, Diet Pills, Gastric Bypass -- they're all in there. What makes it even more brilliant? The haikus were actually written in the tradition of Basho. These are real haikus, not knock-knock jokes broken down into a 5-7-5 meter. And the cleverness of measurement of verse is especially cool considering the theme of the book -- counting points, counting calories, counting pounds. All in all, a perfectly executed piece of writing, and a perfect gift for anyone and everyone.

Book Description

In cities across the land in the 1980s it was not uncommon to wake up in the morning and find nearly every telephone pole sporting a poster advertising some event or concert. Looked at in retrospect, these posters make up a kind of "street art, " with all the vitality and "in-your-face-ness" of the youth culture. Mostly produced on photocopiers or simple litho printers, the designs avant garde, and raw and strong enough to catch the eye of a passerby. Victor Burleigh has gathered together nearly 750 of these original posters, produced from 1977 to 1989 and posted on poles, blank walls, coffee shops, and in the clubs. They are from a time when San Francisco was at the heart of the punk rock phenomenon. Nearly every night one of the clubs would offer a live concert of an up-and-coming group. Each club produced its own posters and posted them at every available spot. The result is a wide collection of styles and graphic images, as well as a history of the rock scene in the 1980s captured in posters and reproduced in this large, wonderful volume. It is a must for graphic designers, rock historians, and collectors. 9" x 12" 744 original posters Index

Book Description

Long known as one of the greatest chess masters of the nineteenth century, William Steinitz is recognized as the first world champion. More exactly (and thanks to the efforts of the author of this book) he has been officially acknowledged as the first American world chess champion.

Luckily for chess scholars, many letters and postcards survive written by Steinitz and his associates, friends and foes. After years of research, numerous personal contacts with people on three continents, and unflagging efforts to acquire any and all known letters to and from Steinitz, the author here presents in their own words a remarkable account of Steinitz and his contemporaries in the chess world of over a century ago. Notable personalities that write or are written about include Lasker, Pillsbury, Zukertort, Bird, Blackburne, Janowski, Tschigorin and Winawer.

Each original letter, postcard, scrapbook item, newspaper or chess magazine article or other writing (including three lengthily-negotiated match play agreements) are described along with details of location, ownership, and circumstances of discovery. It is then printed, nearly always in full, in English (many translated from their original German by Landsberger). The author provides a running commentary on the letters and documents, which are generally chronological in arrangement, putting them in context and remarking the significance of certain points made in them. A biographical dictionary at the back of the book offers information about all the many figures who received, sent, or were mentioned in the documents or letters. Some of the games accompanying some of the letters are annotated by modern grandmaster Andy Soltis (Steinitz's annotations and insights also accompany some). Each game is illustrated. Facsimiles of some of the letters are provided.

Book Description

"This book is like a good tour guide.It doesn't just describe the major attractions; you share in the history, spirit, language, and culture of the place."
--Henning Schulzrinne, Professor, Columbia University

Since its birth in 1996, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) has grown up. As a richer, much more robust technology, SIP today is fully capable of supporting the communication systems that power our twenty-first century work and life.

This second edition handbook has been revamped to cover the newest standards, services, and products. You'll find the latest on SIP usage beyond VoIP, including Presence, instant messaging (IM), mobility, and emergency services, as well as peer-to-peer SIP applications, quality-of-service, and security issues--everything you need to build and deploy today's SIP services.

This book will help you
* Work with SIP in Presence and event-based communications
* Handle SIP-based application-level mobility issues
* Develop applications to facilitate communications access for users with disabilities
* Set up Internet-based emergency services
* Explore how peer-to-peer SIP systems may change VoIP
* Understand the critical importance of Internet transparency
* Identify relevant standards and specifications
* Handle potential quality-of-service and security problems

Customer Reviews:

Well worth the read.......2007-04-03

Very interesting approach to SIP had a lot of good information about what the future may bring

Superficial.......2006-08-31

I bought this book to better understand the inner workings of SIP but, instead, was greeted with a superficial introduction to a miriad of SIP applications, services and options. At the end of the day RFC3261 is a much better source of information, as dry as it might be. As such, I cannot recommend this book to anyone trying to learn the intricacies of SIP.

Disorganized and too shallow.......2006-05-16

This books presents SIP, the protocol for Session Initiation. It covers many aspects, including conferencing, security, Internet telephony, user preferences.

The book is not 400+ pages as Amazon indicates but just below 300. Why does this matter? Because, with 17 chapters, this gives an average of less than 20 pages per chapter. As you can guess, 20 pages are not sufficient to explain topics such as Internet telephony, or conferencing. Even the SIP protocol is not presented fully. Only the major messages are listed with a short description of their use.

I was also disappointed by the book organization. The SIP Overview chapter which explains how SIP works is chapter 5. All the preceeding chapters mention SIP before we even know what SIP is. This is most confusing unless you have already some SIP knowledge.

The book tries to cover too much. We get a whirlwind tour of many topics, none of them explained appropriately. The book opens many issues that remain unanswered. If you want a shallow overview of SIP, this book may meet your need. But you are likely to quickly need something more in-depth.

Excelelnt orientation.......2006-03-09

I am new to the SIP protocol and thisi book gave me exactly what i was seeking: a comprehensive explanation of the SIP architecture and the uses of SIP. The specific chapters on SIP and User Services, Security, IP telephony, DNS and QoS all provided the basics necessary to understand the tradeoffs and issues with implementing SIP.

SIP Seminar.......2004-08-24

This is a great place to start to give you perspective before you dig into the RFCs. Or if you never intend to read the RFCs, this book will give you enough of an understanding of some of the fundamental technology so that you'll be able to follow some of the deeper issues of SIP. Well written too.

Internet Multimedia Communications Using SIP: A Modern Approach Including Java® Practice (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Networking)

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Internet Multimedia Communications Using SIP: A Modern Approach Including Java® Practice (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Networking)
Rogelio Martinez Perea
Manufacturer: Morgan Kaufmann
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) was conceived in 1996 as a signaling protocol for inviting users to multimedia conferences. With this development, the next big Internet revolution silently started. That was the revolution which would end up converting the Internet into a total communication system which would allow people to talk to each other, see each other, work collaboratively or send messages in real time. Internet telephony and, in general, Internet multimedia, is the new revolution today and SIP is the key protocol which allows this revolution to grow.
The book explains, in tutorial fashion, the underlying technologies that enable real-time IP multimedia communication services in the Internet (voice, video, presence, instant messaging, online picture sharing, white-boarding, etc). Focus is on session initiation protocol (SIP) but also covers session description protocol (SDP), Real-time transport protocol (RTP), and message session relay protocol (MSRP). In addition, it will also touch on other application-related protocols and refer to the latest research work in IETF and 3GPP about these topics. (3GPP stands for "third-generation partnership project" which is a collaboration agreement between ETSI (Europe), ARIB/TTC (Japan), CCSA (China), ATIS (North America) and TTA (South Korea).) The book includes discussion of leading edge theory (which is key to really understanding the technology) accompanied by Java examples that illustrate the theoretical concepts.

Throughout the book, in addition to the code snippets, the reader is guided to build a simple but functional IP soft-phone therefore demonstrating the theory with practical examples.

This book covers IP multimedia from both a theoretical and practical point of view focusing on letting the reader understand the concepts and put them into practice using Java. It includes lots of drawings, protocol diagrams, UML sequence diagrams and code snippets that allow the reader to rapidly understand the concepts.

KEY FEATURES

* Focus on HOW multimedia communications over the Internet works to allow readers to really understand and implement the technology
* Explains how SIP works, including many programming examples so the reader can understand abstract concepts like SIP dialogs, SIP transactions, etc.
* It is not focused on just VoIP. It looks At a wide array of enhanced communication services related to SIP enabling the reader put this technology into practice.
* Includes nearly 100 references to the latest standards and working group activities in the IETF, bringing the reader completely up to date.
* Provides a step-by-step tutorial on how to build a basic, though functional, IP soft-phone allowing the reader to put concepts into practice.
* For advanced readers, the book also explains how to build a SIP proxy and a SIP registrar to enhance one's expertise and marketability in this fast moving area.

Book Description

This compendium of explorers, navigators, and expeditions tackles this broad topic with a convenient, but extensive cross-referenced dictionary. A chronology traces the long succession of treks to find the passage, the introduction helps explain what motivated them, and the bibliography provides a means for those wishing to discover more information on this exciting subject.

Customer Reviews:

Still Doing That Old Black Magic That He Does So Well.......2006-06-07

Jeffrey Burton Russell completes the journey from ancient antiquity to the present with "Old Horny" still up to his same old tricks in a variety of new guises and misdirections.

In 'Mephistopheles: The Devil in the Modern World' Russell paints on a broad canvas pointing out the immense scale of diabolical infusion within the modern day 20th century landscape. No facet of life is devoid of his demonic image and influence; art, music, fashion, advertisin, politics. He's everywhere.

A grand conclusion to a monumental amount of research!

Good for Satan but not for Satanism.......2005-05-03

J.B.R. is a U. Cal. historian who knows scholarship - and how to write a history that's accessible to a popular audience. If you want to know about the devil in the Modern world, this is your book. See the other reviews for general content.

I'm more concerned with criticism. As I read "Mephistopheles" I began to wonder if J.B.R. is Catholic, and of the extent to which his faith might have biased his interpretation and presentation of Satanic discourse. This is evident from his dislike and/or dismissal of Protestants, Liberal Catholics, and Satanists.

In the case of the Protestants, J.B.R. is very clearly displeased with the Protestant move towards Scripture, away from Tradition, as the locus of the Christian revelation. He constantly refers to "Tradition" - and by this he means the Catholic one - as the "essence" of Christianity, alongside Scripture. He disparages Protestant scholarship's interest in the historical Jesus as one of endless concessions to secular historicism. Catholic scholarship which is commensurate with this turn in studying Christ and the early Church is similarly damned by him as conceding dogma and tradition to secularization. Liberal popes and Vatican II are criticized in the same way. He knows Protestant scholarship but clearly pays it short shrift.

Far worse, however, is his analysis of contemporary Satanists. J.B.R. dismisses Anton LaVey (the "black pope" of the Church of Satan) and the Temple of Set on the basis of their very primitive scholarship on Satan and frequent self-contradictory remarks about him. One quickly gets the impression that he is out to ridicule rather than understand, and the reader really learns very little about what LaVey and his peers are all about - a secular philosophy of rugged honesty and individualism mixed with a ritual practice bathed in antinomian imagery and symbolism. Much worse is his acceptance of frequent and long-debunked myths of Satanic ritual abuse and even "backmasking" (i.e., rock bands coding Satanic messages backwards in their records). Propogation of such sensationalized falsehood is really unacceptable for any historian of religion and especially a specialist like him. Obviously he felt entitled to be sloppy when it came to contemporary Satanism. Readers interested in the subject should check out LaVey's oeuvre. J.B.R. is right on target for pointing the finger at rock music as the source of Satan's newfound popularity amongst secular teens. If you want to understand rather than ridicule this, read Gavin Baddeley's "Lucifer Rising," which isn't so good on the Christian tradition (J.B.R. is the one for this!) but really knows heavy metal and why Satan is so prominent in it.

The Final Book of the Archfiend.......2005-04-06

"Mephistopheles" is the fourth and final volume in Jeffery Russell's excellent series on the history and myth of the Devil. Here Russell examines the contemporary beliefs and myths of the Dark Lord in detail, from the Renaissance to the present day. Russell explorers not only traditional Christian views on the Devil, but also his incarnations in Islam, Judaism, and others.

The idea of the Devil, the very personification of evil, has changed much since the early days of Judaism and Christianity. By the dawn of the Renaissance, the Devil had undergone a kind of "rebirth" himself. Though the onset of the early modern era had seen the beginnings of science and reason, superstition and religious persecution was at an all time high. Russell examines the role of the Devil in the Reformation and during the height of the Witch Craze. Though they differed on many points of theology, Catholics and Protestants definately agreed that Satan continued to be a very real and very dangerous foe. Russell continues his story into the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason, which saw the Devil lose his teeth, followed by his romanticization in the 19th century as a rebellious anti-hero.

Though still feared by the credulous and railed against in the pulpits by evangelicals, Satan has largely been reduced to a shadow of his former self, an advertising ploy whose imagery is used to sell everything from deviled ham to movie tickets. Russell's books are generally considered the standard modern work on the history and myth of the Devil, and this volume examplifies why this is so. Well worth checking out.

A fascinating history of the devil in modern thought!.......1996-05-29

A very thorough, well-written examination of how Satan and evil have been
viewed since the Reformation. Russell takes a historian's stance to examine
a subject both controversial and mystifying at best. No stone is left unturned
as he looks at how the devil is viewed by church officials, commonfolk,
and intelligentsia,and how these views are reflected in the artwork and pop-culture
of those times. This work manages at once to be intellectual and an easy read,
thorough and engrossing. A must for anyone fascinated by the forces that have shaped Christian thought.

MEPHISTOPHELES: THE DEVIL IN THE MODERN WORLD

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MEPHISTOPHELES: THE DEVIL IN THE MODERN WORLD
Jeffrey Burton Russel
Manufacturer: Cornell University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NTLM50

Book Description

"Through no fault of our own, and by dint of no cosmic plan or conscious purpose, we have become, by the power of a glorious evolutionary accident called intelligence, the stewards of life's continuity on earth. We did not ask for this role, but we cannot abjure it. We may not be suited to such responsibility, but here we are."-Stephen Jay Gould, The Flamingo's Smile

At the close of the 20th century, what do we know about why we are here, on this planet, in this universe? To address this and other big questions, journalist Wim Kayzer invited a diverse cast of six of today's great scientific thinkers to discuss, debate, and argue their points. The result was the acclaimed public television series, A Glorious Accident, now edited and available in paperback.

Kayzer interviewed Oliver Sacks, Daniel C. Dennett, Stephen Jay Gould, Rupert Sheldrake, Freeman Dyson, and Stephen Toulmin individually before bringing them together for a roundtable discussion to consider a variety of broad questions, including:
* What is the nature of our consciousness?
* What concepts has our consciousness developed about our temporal existence?
* What will we derive most from our consciousness: knowledge or understanding?
* What were the questinos that fascinated you when you were growing up?
* What questions keep you spellbound today?

Stemming from actual conversations, A Glorious Accident is high-spirited and heady, as well as being an important chronicle of what we know and, more important, what we do not.

Customer Reviews:

The Wonder and Tedium of Existence.......2007-05-30

The title of this book comes from (who else?) Stephen J Gould. This is what a scientific discussion could be and should be. In short, six famous thinkers were asked to participate in first an individual interview and then a round table discussion with the other five. The subject was life in all its mundane and complex makeup with a special emphasis on consciousness, computers, free will and the future. Almost a "What does it mean to be human?"

Each contributed something special - Oliver Sacks was almost infectious, a child masquerading as a grownup. From his case studies of neurological quirks he has dericed a thery of consciousness and being. Daniel Dennett, the "materialist" of the group, sees the body (and brain) as a complex machine (my personal view) and ventures that since our mind derives from a purely materialistic basis (the atoms in our brains) computers will one day acquire consciousness in complexity. Gould was his usual biting, sarcastic, iconoclastic self - as sure of his own opinions as we was disdainful of others (loved the crack at Dawkins). He represents that almost perfect blend of working scientists, philosopher with the common man touch. Freeman Dyson, the cosmos futurists reminded one of the 19th century with his serious, old-fashioned manner. Rupert Sheldrake tried his best to insert some New Age wisdom and for the most part, failed. His ideas were original but stillborn. Stephen Toulmin plays the part of the man who gets the last word, the scientific historian who finds errors from the early days of philosophy. He is simultaneously authoritative and, in a way, the undeclared leader of the group.

My only criticism was the redundancy of the questions. These six men had wide-ranging backgrounds and ideas so why ask them the same questions? The panel discussion was the very model of civility, intellectual give and take and yet another glimpse into the working of the mind even as they discussed who it did just that! The book has been described as difficult for the layman but any well-read amateur can easily follow the thrusts of the speakers. My grade: A

Where is the DVD?!.......2006-06-25

One of the most interesting shows ever aired on public television (WNET, New York) was Wim Kayzer's interviews with six leading intellectuals who represented both the mainstream academic (Stephen J. Gould, Freeman Dyson and Stephen Toulmin) and more or less, as it were, "eccentric" outside the box groudbreaking intellectuals (Oliver Sacks and Rupert Sheldrake). Kayzer interviews each of them (and philospher Daniel Dennett) individually and then has the entire group sit in a kind of round-table seminar that he moderates and lets the ideas fly.

In mho it is unconscionable that there has never been a DVD release of this unique and amazing historical experiment in intellectual dialogue. And while Kayzer's book pretty much reproduces the dialogues, seeing is believing.

Beats hell out of Plato's Symposium.......2006-01-21

With the likely exception of Rupert Sheldrake, it would be hard to top Wim Kayser's after-dinner philosophical roundtable invitations. And, on Sheldrake, back in the 1990s, he sounded like someone with fresh and thought-provoking ideas, not a philosophical dualist on the borderlands of pseudoscience.

That said, this book is easier to understand if you've seen the video from which the conversation transcripts were made. I saw it air on PBS, which stimulated me to get the book. Later, I then saw the video again.

This indeed is not for beginners; you should have some grounding in cognitive science/philosophy, analytic philosophy, the natural sciences or philosophy of science, preferably at least a bit in more than one of those disciplines.

BUt, if you do, and want to be mentally challenged at a high level, then definitely read this book. And buy or rent the video, too.

Enjoy Brilliant Words of Great Minds!.......2000-11-02

Wim Kayzer interviewed six great thinkers: the psychiatrist and
neurologist Oliver Sacks, the philosopher Daniel C. Dennett, the
paleontologist and evolutionary theorist Stephen Jay Gould, the
physicist Freeman Dyson, the biochemist Rupert Sheldrake, and the
historian and philosopher of science Stephen Toumlin. Then all of them
participated in a round table to discuss the deep and
'unanswerable" questions mainly related to our consciousness. The
content of this book was originally broadcast as a television
series.

In general one expects to get more systematic information
from a book on science or philosophy of science than from a television
program on the same topic, but naturally we cannot have this
expectation for a book produced from a television program. Further,
when an interview or round-table program is put into printed lines,
the discursiveness of spoken words comes to the surface, and the
program is apt to lose some of exciting flavors present in
broadcasting. This book is not an exception of this phenomenon, and
thus is good only for casual enjoyment but not good for obtaining
substantial knowledge. Reading carefully, nevertheless, one can find
some brilliant words of the great minds here and there.

Potpourri of interesting ideas, but solid background needed!.......1999-08-18

"A glorious accident" is not an easy book... Five leading experts talking about some of the most profound subjects available(consciousness, evolution, the Brain...). It takes quite a lot of background to understand everything that is being said. The fact that these are just transcriptions of interviews and a discussion doesn't make it easier: compared to a normal "book", the ideas presented are not as structured and there's no room for background information to introduce readers in complex matters like Witgensteins philosophy or "orthogenesis" and "epistothisandthat". If Descartes, Newton, Heisenberg, Galileo, Montaigne, Darwin, Dirac, Kant, Turing, Aristoteles or Maxwell are completely unknown to you, this is not YOUR kind of book. :-)

In 1991, I saw parts of the original television series. A few years later I read the Dutch printed version for the first time at the age of 20. Now (1999) I've read it again, and there are still quite a few passages where I'm totally lost in space . Now I don't have a degree in philosophy or physics, but still I have a healthy interest in these issues. Not enough to constantly keep in touch with 5 leading experts discussing without holding back..

What is nice about this book, is that you can "grow with it". In around 2005, I'll read it for the 3th time and no doubt I'll conquer some more dark areas.

The "interview" approach also gives quite a good impression of the personalities of these five extraordinary men. Sacks is still like a little child that has preserved his ability to wonder about all and everything. You just CAN'T bore this guy because he always finds an interesting approach! Gould is my absolute favourite. Because his ideas appeal to me, and because he is so totally "no-nonsense". Sheldrake is the rebellion with his heart in the right place. Dyson is the quiet one with the hidden powers. Dennett is so self-confident that it looks almost as if he can force reality to comply to his theories instead of the other way round. Toulmin is a bit too literate for my taste: he always gave me the feeling that I was a few steps behind. Not good for the ego

All in all I would say that the book lacks structure because of the interview approach, but there are still more than enough interesting bits of original ideas and insight to make it worthwile.

Jo Helsen Antwerp, Belgium

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