Bradford Books

This is just spot on. When I meet anyone on Denali who hasn't read this I just shake my head.

I ordered the book about climbing Mt. McKinley for my son, as it is his dream. The book came quickly, it was brand new and everything worked out perfectly. I couldn't have asked for a better experience. Thank you for making things run smoothly in December!!! That doesn't happen every time, but this was super. I was very pleased.

I've just received it and haven't had the chance to really "get into it". BUT ... the little I've read it seems to be just what I was wanting.

Very detailed description of the classic route.
The very accurate photos are good complements to the map (not included with the book)

This is one of only two books I would trust for reliable information about the West Buttress route of Denali. Very informative and practical!

I am a reader of historical novels but this non-fiction book is as easy to read as a novel!

Brad Matsen is an excellent historian. Not only is Matsen' book a first rate adventure story about Beebe and Barton's explorations in the Bathysphere but he gives historical prospective on the times they lived in, including the influence of the media and the politics of science and exploration in the 1930s. If you ever wondered what it would be like to sit in a four foot metal sphere a half mile under water, read this book.

The deep-sea expeditions of Otis Barton and William Beebe revolutionized undersea concepts and exploration - and at the height of the Depression years, when money was tight. Beebe was a famous naturalist who became obsessed with oceanography, and had his own research station off Bermuda, along with the support of many industrialists of his times. The younger Barton was heir to a fortune and had his own dreams of deep-sea exploration and adventure. Together the two opened a new world, directly observing new life in the abyss until a bitter dispute left them estranged. Descent: The Heroic Discovery Of The Abyss re-creates their adventures and discoveries.

Rebeccasreads highly recommends DESCENT by BRAD MATSEN as a fascinating time capsule of the early beginnings of oceanographic exploration, as well as a detailed narrative of scientific vision & determination set against the 20th century era of great wealth & discovery. An absorbing recreation of the life & times of Barton & Beebe, their Bathysphere & what they survived & discovered as they descended into the abyss of the Caribbean.

The reviewer below says that this book is a historical novel: it is not. This book is historical fact.

My daughter and I loved the addy story's wonderful story for girls to understand a bit of history told in a way that they can relate to . slavery is a tough subject and they really make the characters come to life enabling the reader to have compassion and insight to their lives . I only wish they had more addy story's so we could continue to follow her journey.

Of all the Addy books, this last one was my favorite as a girl. (I remember crying when I finished it)-by no means do I want to give away the end, but this book really illustrates the consequences reaped by the civil war. Though written for younger girls, I would even recommend this for older people to read because adults would probably be able to grasp the deeper meaning of this book- that perhaps we ought to take a lesson from history. Our prejudices and arrogance led to the enslavement of part of our race, which led to hate and violence. We still see these things today and so perhaps by reading books like these, that go back to times of hardship or war, it makes us see that there will always be consequences to our actions, and oftentimes it takes a generation or so for it to take its harsh affects.

This story is about a young American girl named Addy. In "Changes for Addy", Addy gets a letter from a women named Bertha Miller saying that she has found Addy's Auntie Lula, Uncle Solomon, and Addy's baby sister Esther. They were going to Philadelphia to give Esther back to Addy's momma. When they find Auntie Lula and Esther outside a church, Auntie Lula explains that Uncle Solomon has died and she, Auntie Lula, may die too. The joy of Christmas for Addy is washed away, leaving only the sadness of death. Is Addy's Christmas ruined? Or will Addy find joy in the happiness of the Christmas? I would highly recommend this book to a friend. This book is a tiny bit better than "Happy Birthday, Felicity" because Addy has way more adventure than Felicity. Connie Rose Porter is an awesome reader and writer.

This is another in the American Girls series about Addy Walker, a ten-year-old African-American girl living in the America of 1865. With the war over, but so many ex-slaves displaced, Addy and her family still hope to find sister Esther. In yet another winter, Addy finds the good and the bad, gain and loss, and hope and the cost of freedom.

The final chapter is a historical look at the post-Civil War years, with Reconstruction, segregation, and the Civil Right Movement. This is another great Addy book, one that tells the unvarnished truth of life for African-Americans in America, but in an uplifting way. My eleven-year-old daughter is now the proud owner of the Addy books, and an Addy doll. She loves these books, and the young lady in your life will too.

Breaking the original overemphasis on the experiences of white girls, the Addy series remains one of the most realistic ones written.

The process of escaping from Slavery and starting over in a "free" society only to discover that society does not actually regard you as an equal either is not the happiest topic in the world, but it needs to be told in order to learn from our mistakes. The authors could have sugar coated the harsh realities of that world, but wisely chose to tell the whole truth to their elementary age target audience.

If ever there were a case where the Congressional Medal of Honor should be given out to a team of Children's Literature writers and illustrators, this team certainly has earned it.

In this installment, Addy is reuinted with her baby sister ester after what seemed like an eternity. While the previous reunions with her father and her brother were also emotional, the symbolism of shadows moving forward in a Church is especially powerfull. Her beloved Uncle Solomon has died, but has found peace because of his brief status as a free man.

The end of the book, which provides a historical recap is especially touching because it goes all the way into the civil rights movement of the 1950's and 1960's. Considering many public school districts give this portion of American History little attention (whether on purpose or not) I feel it is especially important for young women to read this particular portion of the American Girl's series.

This inspiring collection of essays weaves together various threads that comprise the tapestry of modern transpersonal psychology: non-duality, contemporary psychological theory, religious philosophy and clinical practice. Rather than relying on spiritual theories and secondary sources, the authors' personal experience with non-duality and clinical practice informs the ground out of which the essays spring, imbuing them with a feeling of creativity and authenticity. This book is an important contribution to the transpersonal psychology literature and should be required reading in any transpersonal psychology graduate school curriculum.

--Laurel Parnell, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist, author of Tapping In: A Step-By-Step Guide to Activating Your Healing Resources Through Bilateral Stimulation; A Therapist's Guide to EMDR; EMDR in the Treatment of Adults Abused as Children; and Transforming Trauma: EMDR, former core faculty member at John F. Kennedy University, Graduate School for the Study of Human Consciousness, and adjunct faculty at California Institute of Integral Studies.

Bought the book for Bradford's article. The whole book was a gem for furthering your knowledge of transpersonal theory.

Volume two in the Natural Wisdom & Psychotherapy series, Listening from the Heart of Silence is an anthology of essays by learned authors that apply the spiritual insights of Zen, Tibetan Dzogchen, Advaita Vedanta, and other sources of wisdom to modern psychotherapy. Individual essays include "Listening and Speaking from No-Mind", "Nondual Wisdom and Body-Based Therapy", "Walking the Talk: The Principles and Practices of Embodied Spirituality", and much more. A thoughtful demonstration of the positive benefits of nondual spiritual realization. "Moments of self being 'gone' often become noticeable to practitioners of certain kinds of meditation. This is the case especially in Buddhist meditative practice. The dissolution of the self then becomes the desires goal of practice. The practitioner, hoping to 'go into' nonduality, 'gets into' trying to dissolve the self instead. But the self cannot dissolve itself. It cannot really even allow itself to dissolve, for that, too, sets up a duality between the one doing the allowing and the state that is supposed to be achieved by doing it. Notice how 'allowing' can be a mental attitude that fixates the self.

Like its companion volume, The Sacred Mirror, Listening from the Heart of Silence is both inspiring and instructive. To be fully appreciated, it needs to be read slowly and thoughtfully, studied even, because it's breaking new conceptual and practical ground regarding the integration of psychotherapy and nondual wisdom.

We've understood for the last 50 years or so that the personhood of the therapist, his or her own maturity and authenticity, is extremely important to the healing process. But we're just starting to understand what it means when the mature and authentic psychotherapist is also a somewhat "awakened" being, when he or she can access a nondual state of awareness while sitting with their troubled client. That is the territory these two volumes explore. They offer us some valuable distinctions and language that will allow us to understand and discuss this new intersection more clearly.

The opening essay alone is worth the price of the book. It's titled: Toward and Embodied Nonduality: Introductory Remarks. It provides a sorely needed overview of this whole somewhat confusing territory of nondual consciousness and the process of awakening. Most of the books I've read concerning nondual awareness, while helpful to varying degrees, represent the experience and viewpoint of just one person, who usually isn't that interested in articulating his or her awakening within a larger social and cultural perspective. Listening from the Heart of Silence asks the important question: What happens, what is possible, when we listen to one another with the spacious mind and compassionate heart which accompany our awakening?

If you're only going to read one of the two volumes, read this one. But if you're trying to make sense of the nondual state of consciousness, and figuring out what difference it makes to the world, read Sacred Mirror as well. There isn't that much overlap, and we need to hear this stuff from as many directions as possible, to start making sense of it.

Until the 1980's and 1990's (with the important exception of Carl Jung), psychotherapy has been helpless to work with people in the realm of spirituality, and more specifically in the state of non-dualism. We are in an age where, to paraphrase Mark Epstein, spirituality has left the hands of the monastics and is now in the hands of householders -- and psychotherapists.

To be able to enter, experience and know the state of non-dualism is to uncover an essential part of ourselves that is hidden from view because of our conditioned dualistic nature. From the state of non-dualism, the troubling emotions and psychological states of the dualistic self can be better understood and worked with compassionately. From this grows a sensitivity and kindness to all our foibles in our ordinary waking life, as well as an increased sensitivity to the subtle energies of the life force as it plays out between people. Experience in the non-dual helps us to accept ourselves and our lives.

To learn to identify with our non-dualistic aspect is to awaken. This is what all the ancient wisdom schools know and teach. To know or understand the (dualistic) self is to disidentify with the self and to learn about one's true self through the state of non-dualism.

This should be recommended reading for anyone training in psychotherapy.

Book is excellent. Covers the theory very well, such that you can make the computer code yourself. They also provide puedocode. You will be able to learn it better than other books that just give you the code. I find that once you understand the theory, writing the code is easy.

Everybody who tries to use NNets for real goes through these steps.
First, there is the Delta rule.
Then, there is overfitting, local minima, generalization problems and frustration.

The complexity of NN is not in it's math; the difficulty is in the construction of a NN. This book is excellent in providing rules-of-thumb for NN construction, while at the same time providing the theoretical backing.

Hey I am not making money reviewing this book, it's just really good.

Many textbooks can help me to understand the different concepts of neural network, but not the practical tips needed to optimize neural network anlysis and implementation.

The topics covered are reminicent to those discussed in part 2 and 3 of the Neural Network FAQ. In chapter 6, the relationships between learning rate, momontum, trainig time and learning modes are presented graphically. With this, it helps me to rule out and avoid learning parameters that are unlikely to improve the NN performance. This is especially important if the dataset is large and the NN program is implemented in Java.

If the aim is to develop a NN solution that will give you the best results, I find both chapter 7 (heuristics for weights initialization) and 16 (heuristics for improving generation) are esential and saves me a lot of time from reading many journals.

In summary, this book has helped me to develop the art of NN optimization. It shows me how to visualize decision surface and the various graphical relationships between learning paramters and various components of NN topology. I think you will find this book very useful after your NN program is up and running and you are looking for ideas and explaination on how to improve the NN performance further.

After owning this book for many years and reaching for it many times, I decided that I at least owed the book a five star review.

Early in my graduate career I began working with neural networks and discovered this book in a electronic bookshelf available at my university. After printing chapter after chapter to read on subway rides home I ended up buying it for convenience. It gave me the background I needed to code up a basic artificial neural network in C++ and to then extend it to fit my needs.

The style of the writing is the perfect balance of enough detail to understand a concept or method without unnecessary wordiness. Each chapter covers an important aspect of neural network development and application - for exmaple, internode weight initilaization techniques - and acts a sort of mini-review of the most popular methods with a clear explanation of the pros and cons of each.

This is an excellent bookshelf addition for anyone who works with neural networks.

Some books just have the right feel about them and this is one of them. The author clearly knows neural networks and also knows how to communicate to others in a no-nonsense fashion. With so many books being published, you rarely find a technical book that is as good as this. The emphasis here is on conveying the insights that the experts in this area would know. Importantly, concepts are explained equally in words, graphics and mathematics, maximising the uptake of knowledge from the book. Tufte would be impressed by the quality of the line graphics in this book, and the information that they convey, not to mention the overall presentation. I suspect that this book would make an ideal textbook for a course in neural networks. Overall, I've enjoyed reading it very much.

This is one of the most helpful critiques of the dogma of natural selection, along with Soren Lovtrup's Darwinism: Refutation of a Myth, and Robert Reid's Evolutionary Theory: The Unfinished Synthesis. Filled with the hard evidence you won't find in textbooks and that explodes Darwin's claims,without rejecting the broad context of evolution, the book cogently attempts to reach a broader systems view that looks at the transformations of the genome as a whole. Although the intimations of chaos theory here are a bit simplistic, no substitute theory is required to demonstrate the fact that natural selection simply cannot account for the rising number of factual discrepancies. This type of exploration of new ground is both vital and timely. The author's wry suggestion that the six-leggedness of insects falsifies natural selection is but one of the many insights. His disposal of sexual selection is another. Any Darwin dogmatist should be afraid of this book. If you read it, you will snap out of it and end up a Darwin doubter. Bravo. John Landon nemonemini@eonix.8m.com

This volume is the profoundest assault on Darwinism I have encountered in the course of fairly wide reading about evolution. I will be assimilating the ideas contained herein for some time to come--re-reading and discovering their fit--but I can at least offer a glimpse of Robert Wesson's thinking. Natural selection, as advanced by Darwin and later by neo-Darwinists, is insufficient to explain life and evolution. Slow accretion of random mutations is not evident in the fossil record, and is not supported by study of extant organisms. Natural selection was advanced in a Newtonian age when science attempted to reduce natural phenomenon to simple equations and relationships, and just as post-Einsteinian physics has reordered our understanding of matter, we are poised to reorder our comprehension of life. To consider Wesson's argument on the simplest level, think about tree leaves. If natural selection selects to optimize living structures--in the case of a leaf, absorption of solar radiation through photosynthesis--why do we observe a wide diversity of leaves within a given biome? Surely there has been time for plants to arrive at an optimal design. Instead there are wide variations in plant life at all levels of efficiency, and leaf structure is only the most evident of the differences. Or consider frogs and toads. Why do they utilize an idiosyncratic means of locomotion: the hop? No other quadruped moves like they do (although rabbits and kangaroos are somewhat similar in some of their motions, if not their skeletons and musculature). Again, according to classical natural selection, such odd behavior would prove better or worse and either become a dominant mode or disappear. This is one of many hints that evolution may not be one thing, but many things, expressed differently across the spectrum of life. The evidence Wesson marshals seems to point to natural selection as a means of refining major changes, but not a means of achieving major change. Instead, it appears that chaos theory, and active self-direction of living organisms must play a large part in the progress from simpler to more complex life. Chaos theory, considered to be one of the three major scientific discoveries of the past century (together with general relativity and quantum mechanics), has revealed a deep level of coherence in randomness. The most accessible vision of chaotic behavior might be seen in running water. A stream consists of a mass of randomly moving particles bumping into each other, reacting to friction on the stream bed and obstacles, and emerging as standing waves and eddies--structures built from random parts. Nothing about the behavior of individual molecules predicts the emergence of such structures, and yet there is a predictability in the disorganization: waves emerge, turbulence coheres. In the same way, it seems, structures and behaviors in living systems emerge all at once: a leap from one form to another without the intervening forms that natural selection would predict. Whales, for example, moved from a terrestrial habitat into the oceans and almost instantly shifted several major organ systems, no intermediate form of which would have proven useful to survival. (Alone among mammals the whale or dolphin tail moves vertically instead of horizontally, alone among aquatic mammals the whales shed rear appendages and moved their breathing apparatus from oral/nasal passages to the top of the head, etc.) Similarly, bats appeared suddenly, virtually identical to their modern form, and have remained the most widely successful mammalian form for millions of years. Coming at Wesson's argument from another quarter, feathers appear to have evolved independently three to five times. Instead of being a lucky accident, it may be more clearly explained as emergence of a basic structural tendency of matter. The same is true of the eye. Or consider the species of bot fly which requires a É mammalian host for its larvae, but lays its egg on the proboscis of a mosquito. There is no intermediate step possible. The fly egg must be injected into a mammalian blood stream. Other flies do that themselves. How does the leap to utilizing a mosquito for egg delivery emerge through random chance? The author opens far more questions than he answers, and that is his stated intent. The point, he says, is that Darwinism has been so successful at refuting creationism that it has become lodged in its success and has failed to move forward beyond its Newtonian roots. I cannot begin to offer the breadth and nuance of his arguments in a short review, but commend this work to anyone interested in a deeper appreciation of how we came to be. I conclude with a quote: "We have not the faintest notion what our long-term role in the drama of evolution may be, how it may appear a million or even a thousand or a hundred years from today. But it can hardly be unimportant; we seem to be the makers of a turning point. Ours is the moment when biological evolution gives way to cultural-informational evolution, with all its explosive potential. Human civilization is not an end but a vaulting into the unknown. It is a supreme glory that humans can decide what destiny they desire and, if wise enough, can make their own evolution."

This is a valuable look at self-organization in evolution. Citing many cases where a reductionistic explanation of genetic variation and natural selection is inadequate, Wesson argues that complex biological structures owe their emergence to a fusion of physical processes at the edge of "Chaos." You will find similar themes in the work of Ilya Prigogine, Brian Goodwin, Niles Eldredge, and others.
Advocates of so-called Intelligent Design often cite this book, while "ultra-Darwinians" dislike it. Actually, however, Wesson's presentation offers a third way, neither reductionist nor theistic. (I do not know what Wesson's personal views are, but it is his work here that is in question.)

I highly recommend this book, which is a powerful critique of conventional Darwinist wisdom. Yet it is by no means an attack on evolution. To the contrary, it appears that Wesson is attempting to rescue evolutionism by challenging his fellow evolutionists to admit that Natural Selection is simply insufficent as a mechanism to explain the evolution of biological realities we see before our eyes.

Wesson present his case thoroughly in an extremely well researched and interesting book. What's frustrating is that the evolutionary establishment has failed to take him up on the challenge, as far as one can tell. My suspicion is that they don't want outsiders to know just how weak their case is until they can come up with a replacement mechanism.

Unlike most of the books which deal with theories of evolution, this one takes an objective non-partisan approach. The author sticks to the facts and depicts an incredible array of behaviors and facts regarding just about any life form found on earth. This can be sometimes a bit tedious, most of the time very interesting though. I do not think the style is appalling, it is scientific and precise. Chapter 12 (evolution and humanity) could justify the book by itself. I command the author for his amazing and thorough scientific approach, as well as his philosophical insights. In my search for truth and virtue about the humane, i stumbled upon too many one-sided books, and the more thorough i became the more confusing everything grew. I could have just bought this book. For it is also a book about faith, and what it means to be human. Mr Wesson, thank you.

Bennett was a brave 19th century freethinker, and Bradford tells the story in an easy, engaging style. I learned a lot about Bennett's arch foe, Anthony Comstock. I also learned that Bennett disagreed with the great 19th century freethinker Robert Ingersoll on matters of personal morals, Ingersoll being far more conservative than Bennett.

The only mistake I could find is that Bradford refers to the lake near Ingersoll's Dresden, NY birthplace as "Lake Seneca"; it's actually Seneca Lake.

Highly recommended.

Bennett was 19th century America's most controversial publisher and promoter of free speech, founding the 'blasphemous' NY periodical THE TRUTH SEEKER in 1873, which was widely banned. This biographical considers his influences, life, achievements, and the sentiments of his times, offering a far-reaching and insightful glimpse into the ideas and ideals of his times. More than just a biography, it's piece of history not to be missed by any serious college-level American history holding; particularly those specializing in free speech rights and issues.

Roderick Bradford of Allentown, Pennsylvania, author of the complete biography of DeRobigne Mortimer Bennett (1818 - 1882), is a freelance writer and independent video producer who has also written articles for American History magazine, The Quest, and American Atheist.

Bennett, the first of three children to poor farming parents, encountered differences in faith at a young age, with a father who was "moral" but didn't attend church and a mother who was a devout, church-loyal Methodist.

His ethic of hard work developed when he was very young; he began working for a publisher of mostly Bibles when he was twelve years old. When his father abandoned his family, he shared his 1830 salary of $1.50 per week with his mother.

His life changed when he joined the Shakers, a communitarian, strictly celibate offshoot of the Quakers. Officially, the Shakers were known as The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, or more simply, The Millenial Church. Originally from England, the group became known as the Shakers due to their ecstatic and often violent shaking contortions during their religious services. The less respectful of society called them the Shaking Quakers, although they preferred to be known as the Alethians, for "children of the truth."

Occasionally the vows of celibacy, harshly enforced by the Elders, did not mesh in young minds, and the urge for companionship outweighed the safety of the simply, communal life of the ever-productive Shakers. On September 12, 1846, Bennett shocked the Shakers, who denounced him for leaving them to elope with Mary Wicks, another heretic Shaker, when he was twenty-seven years old. DeRobigne and Mary visited the Shakers without exception every five years thereafter.

The mid-1840s, a time when the orthodoxy was strong, and the Victorian-style Christian, God-fearing Idiocracy was in control of the religious and a majority of the secular media, was an unsettled period if there ever were one. In 1848, the first women's rights movement organized in Seneca Falls, New York, under Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, both public critics of the Bible.

People were reading Thomas Paine and Voltaire, of all people.

The year 1848 also saw the beginning of the spiritualist movement, led in Rochester, New York, by Margaret and Kate Fox. The beginning of the movement quickly led to a national pseudoscientific craze, which wasn't appreciated by the orthodoxy either.

When the women and many of the men began embracing feminism, the orthodoxy became further perplexed.

Anthony Comstock, America's "self-appointed arbiter of morals," began, with the sanction of the City of New York, to clean up the mails by arresting those who would dare send obscene (PG-rated by today's standards) materials through the U.S. Postal Service. Comstock, an icon among conservatives, had thousands of people arrested during his career, including Bennett, with nary a second thought: "Some of the country's most powerful and pious citizens backed Comstock, who bragged about driving fifteen people to suicide in his Christian-sanctioned mission to `save the young.'"

Bennett considered himself a freethinker as of 1850. Freethinkers at that time were called "infidels," defined by Webster as not-faith, not faithful, or not full of faith. Freethinkers at that time called themselves "liberals," and were the founding fathers and mothers of the Liberal party. A liberal during the post-slavery Reconstruction Period was defined as "one who does not acknowledge the authority of the Bible or admit the supernatural character of the Christian system," and was not limited to far-left politics or atheism but also included free religion and agnosticism.

When in 1859, Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species was published, the conventional Victorian society was shocked, the intellectuals were stunned, and the religionists were infuriated.

After the election of President Grant, the alarmists began to sound their bells: "Some of the nation's most widely read publications printed articles about the frightening prospects of an irreligious world."

D. M. Bennett added to the irreligious world by founding the Truth Seeker in 1873. He and it were devoted to science, morals, freethought, and human happiness, and he and it were inspired by Thomas Paine. The literal title of the publication was the "Truth Seeker: Devoted to Science, Morals, Freethought, Free Discussion, Liberalism, Sexual Equality, Labor Reform, Progression, Free Education, and whatever tends to elevate the human race. Opposed to Priestcraft, Ecclesiasticism, Dogmas, Creeds, False Theology, Superstition, Bigotry, Ignorance, Monopolies, Aristocracies, Privileged Classes, Tyranny, Oppression and Everything that Degrades or Burdens Mankind Mentally or Physically."

He worked from pre-dawn to late at night seven days a week, and the length of his periodical's title is characteristic of his writing: his premise on most platforms became known in the occasionally retrospective, often descriptive, occasionally mud-slinging, and frequently inflammatory articles. He was outspoken with a gift of gab, and developed friends and enemies in high places.

His issues were many, his thoughts well documented. Often embroiled in heated arguments with his opponents in the press, he left diplomacy behind and let his enemies receive his temper with both barrels. He was both revered and reviled.

Bradford gives this biography special impact with his expertly handled flow of words, a precise, rhythmic literary zoom into the character and back out to society to give the reader a seamless, omniscient view of the man and the culture. I highly recommend this action-packed book to the lover of biographies as well as the lover of history, and especially freethought history.

Since I had set out on a project to research ancient civilizations, their religions and their rise, decline and fall, and related matters after obtaining a Research-Reader's authorization to enter into the "Stacks" at the Robart's Library in 1970, I have read and studied many works of DeRobigne Mortimer Bennett! Here is where I first came across a Hardcover Volume of over 1100 pages called "Champions of the Church" and other works of this author -- including Bennett's "An Infidel Abroad!" While over the years I have expanded the original "Champions of the Church" into four volumes (with over 2000 pages), since I am not an author per se, I have simply added these volumes to my own personal library of some 25 Books.
I have always wondered if someone with the ability and courage not only recognize but understand the effects religious bigotry in 19th century New England would come across the history of Mr. DeRobigne Mortimer Bennett and decide to write a biography! Therefore, I cannot fully express how pleased I was when I recently learned that Mr. Roderick Bradford had done just that! I have now read this amazing book "word for word from cover to cover"; and, since I felt I'd been quite familiar with the details of Bennett's life prior, I soon learned that I really did not know as much as I had thought!
Thus, I found Roderick Bradford's work not only an "Excellent Read," but since it was flowing with a more realistic perspective of the kind of "Comstock Insanity" of the times under review [times, sadly, once again appearing to return] describing events and places that seemed to come back to life [at least in my mind], I could hardly put the book down without longing to continue ASAP! I can, and will, personally recommend this book to anyone [many friends over the years have heard me praise Mr. Bennett] who desires to understand just how such religious bigotry existing in the so-called "Age of Reason" has affected the mental growth of humankind today!
As author Christopher Hitchens, in his Book "god is not GREAT" asserted "... God did not make us; we made God!"
All books have purpose -- some more purposeful than others! The rationale of Mr. Bradford's work is obvious; to offer a contentious point of view unhindered by any religious rhetoric in the hope that those who may have concerns about the current state of affairs in the U.S. (and Canada) has offered some guidance to survive what we now perceive is a growing and insidious entangled web of religious revivalism among otherwise educated peoples.
Sincerely Expressed,
Ron Malloy.

In this day and age it seems that the right wing Christians are in control of the country, and we wonder how this happened. We also tend to suspect that this is unique in American history. Unfortunately this is not true. The US swings back and forth from a heavy Christian attitude to a more liberal view.

One previous heavy religious time was in the late 1800's, especially when Anthony Comstock, the U.S. Post Office's 'special agent' in weeding out anything non-Christian.

At the other end of the scale at this time was DeRobigne Bennett. Bennet founded the 'blasphemous' magazine Truth Seeker in 1873 and presented stories such as identifying the wrong doings of religious leaders, free thinking, and denouncing Christianity, which he called 'the greatest sham in the world.'

Eventually Comstock won, by getting Bennett convicted of various crimes that today would be laughed out of court.

This is a well written history of what happened to a man we could use today.

Eases the reader gradually through the foundations of ICA and treats various published methods in a contrasting manner. No other reference is needed while reading the book; he even gives the pronounciation of some of the greek letters in footnotes.

This excellent book introduces the reader in the field of Independent Component Analysis providing the necessary fundamentals to understand and apply the different methods. The book also makes interesting links to other techniques. The author has succeeded at writing a very didactic text, not an easy task given the complexity of the matter, and at transmitting his enthusiasm to the reader.
I've enjoyed this book, which has been not only an introduction to ICA but which has brought me into ICA, stimulating my own experimentation with the technique.

Without this book I would never have understood the basics and finesses of ICA. Even if readers ar highly skilled in math reading this book will set out mile'stones' that will enhance the understanding of the ICA- problem, -tools and -possibilities.

Dr. G. Otte

I can't stress how reader friendly this book is. It is by far the best introduction on component analysis. It is written in such a way that those with a weaker math background can understand it while those with years of experience will not be bored, at certain times it even reads like a story.

It addition to being readable the book contains an impressive amount of content for its size. This content is presented in an organized manner, and in such a way that the user can immediately apply the techniques to their own problems.

If you are interested in independent component analysis or one of its relatives I highly recommend this valuable, reasonably price book.

James Stone's monograph is a refreshing new book amongst the many other `new books' on Independent Component Analysis (ICA). The author brings his teaching experience to present the theory and practice of ICA in a highly accessible form using a duplication of words and straight-forward mathematics.

Particular attention is given in the earlier chapters to the description of the linear signal mixing process giving the Reader a good basis for understanding the fundamental assumptions upon which ICA and its application to Blind Source Separation are based.

The book is aimed at the Reader with a technical but not necessarily formal mathematics background. Illustrative examples and functional algorithms in MatLab are frequent and references are made to the author's available electronic resources. As such it is suitable to both the newcomer to ICA, and to the more expert engineer or scientist.

This Reviewer rates this book very highly.

Monaco is THE great novel of the 21st century to this point. If you are serious about literature, you need this volume on your bookshelf.

A great read in historical fiction based in 1937 Monaco. This is one of those books that gets better as it progresses. Very entertaining and fun to read, and yet thought-provoking. Morse does a wonderful job in presenting some deep philosophical issues throughout the book and artistically presents opposing sides through the main characters. If you want a good entertaining book with romance, energy, and intrigue, this book is for you. Within the context of the excitement and drama of 1937 Monaco and the Monaco Grand Prix, the reader is ultimately prompted to explore what makes us human.

It's evident that Morse is aware of some of the heedless debotchery and pornographic decadence that people seem to be attracted to in novels these days--Monaco is full of characters that represent that idea. But instead of writing something like the typical modern novel, it appears that Morse rejected that thought and instead went ahead and produced a timeless epic all the while creating his own artform: the poem/novel/philosophy book.

The story is interesting (though it doesn't really get going until 3/4ths of the way into the book) but what's really on showcase in Monaco is something much more important. Morse's writing style is a masterful mix of narrative and commentary that is more lyric than some of the best poetry. His characters are vivid and alive--save for perhaps some of the scoundrel Nazis. And his philosophy is a brilliant mix of liberty-first Lockism and Pope John Paul Duece's love-is-the-answerism. The shocking monologue by a surprise character near the end is still reverberating in my mind.

Some advice to the casual consumer: buy this book. Read it all (a reader will be rewarded for the 600-page effort and the frequent dictionary stops). And instruct your daughters to read it. This should be required reading for all pre-teen girls who are considering falling into the decadence of modern teenage ignonimy. At the very least, the OVerture, Entre'Acte, and Denouement--literary pieces that will blow your mind-- WILL be required reading in 100 level English. At least that's the case if there is any justice in the world--and, fittingly, that's what the goal of this book is--to examine and promote justice.

Everyone has their own way of judging a novel. Some people know it's a good book if they just can't put it down (and stay up half the night to finish it). Some people know it's a good book if they want to read it a second time. The way I know it's a good book is if I never want it to end. And with Monaco, this occurred to me just about three chapters into the 3rd Part. By that time, I had gotten to know the characters well enough that I really began to feel what they were feeling (the warm summer weather as well as their fears and hopes) and that put me in a place that I just never wanted to leave. Monaco is a summery book, which is my favorite season, and combines all of the best, most magical aspects of the season--the sun tans, the long days and the warm nights. And there is a great sense of traveling about the novel--you travel to Monaco first of all, but there is so much travel throughout--sailing, canyons, hiking, Paris, Germany, and Africa even! The magical feeling of Monaco generates a very vivid connection between the characters that really resonated with me so that I actually LOLed a few times and cried a number of times, which is, by the way, another way that I know if a book is good. If you can't help from crying while reading on the plane, it's a great book. No matter how you judge a novel, Monaco probably has it. Magical, beautiful, action-packed...a classic by any standard.

Just like the French Riviera in the 1930s, the setting of this new and perfectly summery novel, Monaco is warm and breezy, lush and tropical, and full of celebrities, royalty, and dreamers, and author Morse brings them all brilliantly to life.

When Dash Bradford turns a brief business trip to Monaco into a more permanent stay in order to help auto parts tycoon Jacques Tourangeau put a car in the Grand Prix--and win the heart of Tourangeau's beautiful young daughter, Margaux--the idealistic American suddenly has everything he has ever dreamed of. But when Dash finds himself up against power-hungry Nazi Germany, he soon realizes that his dreams come with a very high cost, and that pursuing them may mean risking the loss of all he holds dear.

Featuring race scenes that pulsate with all the energy and excitement of a Grand Prix course; a whimsical, romantic, and heartbreakingly beautiful love story; and an exploration into the philosophical questions upon which man has dwelled throughout history, Monaco truly has something for everyone, and Morse brings it all together with skill. With careful attention to detail, he expertly conveys the vibrant coastal setting, the lavish parties, and the gripping Grand Prix races, and his engaging dialogue draws the reader into engaging discussions of faith, tradition, family, enterprise, art, justice, love, and much, much more.

Monaco has the retro feel of a vintage travel poster, the classic action of an old Hollywood film, and the soul of a Russian novel. At the heart of this book is the belief that perfection is possible, and that life and love are worth striving against all odds for. Romantic, hopeful, and full of energy, Monaco provides a welcome alternative to the bitterly discouraging works that tend to populate the contemporary fiction shelves.

Reading Monaco is like treating yourself to a breath of fresh, warm, life-affirming Rivieran air.

If you find the notion of materialism (matter is primary and mind is a mere emergent or epiphenomena of matter) unsatisfying
and
The concept of idealism (mind is primary and matter is merely a manifestation of mind) a bit fanciful or romantic.
then
you should learn about or entertain the premise of panpsychism (the idea that mind and matter are different manifestations of the true underlying monistic reality).
This book offers a complete historical review of this philosophical concept in the west from the ancients to modern scientific observation.
A fascinating read of the history of the middle way in the duel between mind and matter as primary reality.

David Skrbina's "Panpsychism in the West" presents the historical emergence of panpsychism within western philosophy: from the ancient Greeks, the Renaissance, the eighteenth century, and up to modern times. Skrbina gives a very comprehensive treatment, worthy of five stars despite my criticism. Nevertheless, I want to point out some subtly that Skrbina missed, and this is not to detract from Skrbina's fine work. My sharper focus depends on two concepts of my own making: the word game; and the meaning of panpsychism.

First, the word game: It cannot be that we merely define systems into being, say materialism and idealism, leaving the systems identical in all respects except for the select definitions. The definitions by themselves don't automatically present something that is self evident. For example, renaming red into blue, and blue into red, gives us nothing. In the sense that we get hung up on prior definitions (and categories) we are playing only a word game, and getting no closer to the truth. Rather it must be that what we discover with our definitions is only a tension, and it is that somehow the tension is able to resolve itself. Therefore, truth is not defined into being. Truth is discovered as tension resolves itself.

Now, the meaning of panpsychism: Correcting for word games that are common to definitions of panpsychism (e.g, as Skrbina provides) gives us the most frugal meaning. In my view, awareness necessarily finds an agreement between an active (will-like) feeling that imprints on a passive (matter-like) substrate, until something self evident is revealed. The slightest feeling holds an awareness. Panpsychism is saying that some awareness exists in animals, plants, (rocks, worlds, and the universe). Because awareness is pervasive, awareness is more generally a property of matter as well as the entire universe. Hence, panpsychism is consistent with a vitalism where both active and passive constituents permeate the universe. An innate feeling takes the provisional into the universal, and revealing what is self evident.

Panpsychism finds a middle way between materialism and idealism. Because the validity of panpsychism is itself self evident, materialism and idealism are discovered as bodies of expressions that have not yet reached a sufficient threshold of self awareness, but this realization is getting far ahead. The bottom line is that we can in principle put both materialism and idealism on the psychologist's couch, revise their truth claims and recover evidence for panpsychsim. It is with this revisionist attitude that I read "Panpsychism in the West". This revisionist attitude supports a universal grammar, something already noted by the phenomenologist Edmund Husserl.

Writing on the mutual interaction of mind and body, Skrbina (page 13) notes how this interaction is plausible: "Only in the naive intuitive argument that `mind clearly exists', `(human) body clearly exists,' and `I know that my mind affects my body and vice versa'. Unfortunately in the 400 years since Descartes no one has produced a satisfactory explanation as to exactly how this would work." This is again more confusion coming from the word game, and Skrbina forgets that Husserl fixed Descartes' view. What comes with self evidence does not require a necessary explanation. Rather it is philosophy that is a derivative of self evidence, and it is a presumed objectivity that questions the mind-body interaction that is found naive.

Skrbina (page 21) tells us that a "pantheism can be confused with panpsychism," and that pantheism is a "monistic concept of mind" that is closer "to a traditional theistic view-point". However, if panpsychism wishes to remain viable it must resolve itself with pantheism. Pure pluralistic panpsychism fails because a fragmented plurality forgets that it is only an imprint in something pervasive and immanent. Moreover, it must be possible for the plurality to reach a shared understanding, and this can only be achieved by way of the feeling of empathy.

Skrbina (page 9) picked up on the word game, noting that "functionalism [a class of materalistic monism] can be seen to shade into panpsychism." Then he (page 11) fails to note that idealism provides a similar loophole writing that "one can be an idealist without being a panpsychist" and while referring to Hegel as an example. Hegel was a trinitarian more than an idealist, and his system grew out of Schelling's transcendental idealism. Skrbina (page 115) places Schelling close to being a panpsychist, but where Schelling goes so does Hegel. Moreover, how Hegel describes life in the "Science of Logic" can only be seen as an endorsement of vitalism. Vitalism cannot be separated from the meaning of panpsychism, and we find nothing but the word game preventing the recognition of Hegel's panpsychism. Skrbina (pages 58, 60) connects the trinitarian concepts of the Logos and the Holy Spirit to panpsychism, so how he misses this is hard to fathom.

Skrbina (page 65) writes: "Monotheism was in direct conflict with panpsychism, and thus it effectively suppressed any advance in panpsychist philosophy. The Christian worldview, along with aspects of Aristotelian natural philosophy, dominated Western intellectual thought for about 1,300 years." However, Skrbina equivocates badly with the word "Christian". "Christian" is not to find its meaning from the most power hungry theologians that gave us the inquisition. The most authoritative theologians do paint a dualistic conception of God that has separated from God's creation, yes this is true. However, it is not the case that Thomas Aquinas (non-panpsychist) is more Christian than Saint Francis of Assisi (panpsychist). What is more important is that when we put Christianity on the couch we find that the mystics are closer to the heart of Christianity, and we find that Jesus was a panpsychist (at least according to trinitarian belief).

Skbina makes several references to design arguments being used to justify panpsychism, referring to Patrizi (page 71), Gilbert (page 77), Campanella (page 79), Mauperuis (page 106), and Fechner (page 126). Skrbina (page 188) writes: "Darwin's theory of evolution initiated a series of new scientific arguments for panpsychism." Skrbina forgets the meaning of panpsychism and he misses the fact that Darwin's theory of evolution is opposed to design arguments. However, Darwinism does not escape the couch. Darwinism makes only a caricature of life, attempting to explain what is vital rather than describing something that can only be described. It is that felt vitality is a precondition for natural selection, it is not that natural selection explains the vital; this confusion comes from the word game. Moreover, monads are non-passive so they don't just go along for the ride provided by natural selection thereby making panpsychism redundant. The controversial movement of intelligent design provides the strongest arguments against Darwin's theory, and their evidence is turned into support for panpsychism once these folks are also led to the couch. Skrbina is strangely silent on intelligent design.

Skrbina (page 118) writes: "Schopenhauer thrust the concept of will into a central ontological role. Will, for him, was not merely the equivalent of human desire but was more generally a universal force, a drive, something that impelled all things and sustained all things." Skrbina (page 137) also correctly interprets Nietzsche's "will to power" as an endorsement of panpsychism. Nietzsche embroiled himself in the study of nihilism, not that he himself was a nihilist. Nevertheless, he was easy to associate Christianity with nihilism which led to a confusion that reached its high point with the remark "God is Dead." We find yet another example of the word game.

Skrbina writes about my favored panpsychists: C.S. Peirce; A.N. Whitehead, Teilhard de Chardin, and C. Hartshorne. He makes a very impressive case for panpsychism, taking us into modern time. His book is must reading. Nevertheless, a stronger case can be made with the couch.

Disclosure: My agenda is declared in my profile.

An outstanding piece of work that shows that philosophy CAN be a lot more interesting than watching paint dry!

The deanimation of Nature was a great sleight of hand of the Enlightenment. There is progressively more evidence that the notion that the whole Universe is comprised of nothing but cleverly arranged inanimate objects is fundamentally flawed. This fine book does not present us with a definitive answer or solution: it is rather an examination of the concept that Mind exists in some form throughout the phenomenal world and beyond it. It emphasizes that this apparently heretical concept is a legitmate field of inquiry.

This book is well written and deserves a wide readership, particularly amongst those who have enjoyed the insights of Ken Wilber, Ervin Laszlo and Christian de Quincey. I wish that it would also be read by some of my friends and colleagues in the scientific community, but I fear that is a vain hope!

Skrbina writes a book about theories, not a theory, he claims (p.2). He restricts his discussion to the notion of "mind" as it has been understood from various perspectives in living and non-living things in this philosophical history. Panpsychism, as a philosophical perspective, links beings and mind in a way no other system does, he maintains. However, due to the data and context in which he philosophizes he is confined to discussing his position from within a Hellenized philosophical perspective. His work is a western philosophical treatise and this is reflected in the title words, "in the West." Perhaps, at a later date, a book might appear entitled, Panpsychism in Philosophy. With that as a possibility, I view, Skrbina's work as a preamble to a discussion on "mind" within a de-Hellenized, that is, Western conception of epistemology uninfluenced by Greek notions. I view Skrbina's perspective on Panpsychism, as part of an evolutionary process leading to a possible de-Hellenized understanding of mind. Whether or not such de-Hellenization is his intent is conjecture on my part. However, he hopes to introduce us into a broader concept of mind that may arise from considering "the evolution of panpsychist thought from the time of the pre-Socratics through the present" (p. 22). He does this successfully within the Hellenist heritage. As a sub-stratum to theology, my own discipline, Skrbina's critical philosophical history provides theologians with the incentive to re-visit the philosophical underpinnings of western theology although this is not his intent (p.2). Even though Panpsychism in the West, as a theory about theories, does not attempt a philosophical de-Hellenization it does offer to theologians a sub-stratum from which to re-conceive the person as sharing in mind-like qualities with the rest of its environment. From my perspective, the broader concept of mind Skrbina seeks may be found in a de-Hellenized worldview.

This book is an excellent introduction to Panpsychism. It gives lots of detailed history and clarifies the issues up to recent debates. I highly recommend it, especially for tough minded scientists and other true believers.

Science has had a hard time finding a focus for mind and awareness under its microscope. After a decade of having the spotlight of science on this subject area, there is still no agreement even on what consciousness is, and that is the self admission of the leaders in the field of consciousness studies.

It's my (lonely) view that science as now understood is not up to this task, is not itself well understood, and that a radical change of view and approach is needed to place mind in nature. My long standing openness to Panpsychism has recently led to incorperating it into an integrated view of nature. This view requires better "nontranscendental" science.

There are other recent voices who would approach this through quantum mechanics, emergence etc. etc. With the historical emphasis of this book, I dont think it had the scope for an in-depth coverage of what has been happening the past 25 years related to Panpsychism. My hope is that Skrbina is working on a sequel to clarify the current state of the art in addition to working on his own solutions in his research interests.