Bruno Books

Fr. Bruno combines a lifetime of scholarship with the mind of a scientist (he was a chemist) and the devotion of a man of much prayer. The sense is one of giving honor and glory to our Creator by revealing the deep mysteries of Christianity. Deep only due to our ignorance and inability to synthesize a cohesive vision of Reality and Life caused by disputive forces. Father Bruno uses the form of a quaternary symmetry to illustrate the continuing revelation of God to His children. His style is reminicent of Bede Griffiths but has deep dimensions of devotion and poetry that are unique to this hermit of the California coast. He approaches Thomas R. Kelley in his depth of compassion and transcends all authors (IMHO) as a guide to the pilgrim.

"Set Free" by Martha C. Woods has been a long awaited help for all of us who are caregivers. I find that for myself, there are several people who feel the way that I do and are involved in similar situations. The fact that there is a place to write down my feelings for that particular day only enhances it. I believe that anyone who has to take care of a family member or friend should have this book to look to when times become difficult or unsure. I also appreciate the fact that this book gives the reader valuable scripture references to follow up on. Martha Wood did an excellent job and a marvelous work!!

While two ravens grumble and groan , the third remains quiet. Even as night and snow falls this steadfast bird seems to revel in the snow, and his quirky longing to interact with the children gives both them and him a special treat when the snow stops and the sun returns. The story is heartwarming and the paintings cannot help but make the reader smile. A book that everyone could snuggle up with on a cold winter night.

From cover:

It was safer to be locked alone in a room with a deadly cobra than to spend a few minutes with Cherry. Pert little redheaded Cherry, with a bubbling laugh and a figure that drove me crazy.

She haunted my days and my nights and drew me along with her on a nightmare of love, lust, and murder...

Fawcett published the best mysteries, suspense romances, and gothics! A gold medal book. (s1110)

This is the second volume in the Soda graphic novel (European comic). David Solomon, or Soda, is a NYC cop. But to his mother he pretends to be a priest.

In this story, we see the backstory why David became a cop and why his mom thinks he is a priest.

I think this volume is better than the first one. Why? because instead of continuing with the action from the first volume, the author (Tome)makes a 180 and turns this into a great film noir if this were a movie. If Tome is the director then Warnant is the director of photography. His visuals are stunning and help to create the mood.

Before David became a police officer, he was a ghostwriter for a thrash novelist specializing in murder stories. The eery thing is that the people David uses as an inspiration/victims for his novels, all die exactly as he describes in the novels.

Usually, the second volume/episode of everything is not as strong as the first one;however, this is not the case with this one. Highly recommended.

bought this book when it first came out in 1976 and have enjoyed it along with family since. the pictures are generous views of some of the animals and children who enjoy growing up with the animals. very funny in parts and a bit of sadness but that's part of growing up with animals. the cartoons are a hoot.

As a gay traveller it isn't always easy for two men to check in and have to fight to get a double bed. This guide is a good starting point for those in the same situation.

Siciliano and Khatib have assembled a massive and comprehensive tome on robotics, circa 2008. Sections of the book can be read by a diverse audience of undergraduate and graduate students, researchers and even the general public. Spanning any field associated with the subject.

There is considerable maths in the modelling of robots. Often to understand and control an arm. The multiple degrees of freedom of joints are wonderful for dexterity. But these often give an excursion into advanced linear algebra and control systems theory. Several chapters go into the necessary maths. You probably need at least 2 years of undergraduate engineering maths as preparation.

The myriad applications in which robots have been deployed is amply surveyed in Part F, Field and Service Robotics. In the household, there is of course the floor cleaning Roomba. A cute little gizmo, but it is not a toy; a genuine robot in its own right. The chapter mentioning it also describes an entire genre of competitors; mostly lesser known to the public.

Another chapter on agriculture and forestry talks about using robots for tasks like harvesting. Usually more successful when the terrain is flat and well defined; ie. having only one crop present. While the general case of a robot in hilly, wooded terrain with multiple obstacles and different species of trees is much harder to program.

I also ran into something in this chapter from my past, and it impressed me as to the book's comprehensiveness. At the University of Western Australia, there was a long running program to devise a robot sheep shearer. It started in the 70s and I met several of its researchers. I lost track of it after 1983, but I'd wondered whatever became of it. The book takes up the thread, explaining that the program took on the name Shear Magic, and was ultimately discontinued because it was never fast enough. But even in failure, this robotic application had a side effect. The demonstration of the technology was used by farmers to browbeat human shearers into moderating their wage claims, by playing off longstanding fears of workers about being replaced by machines. Of course, whether or not this was desirable may be a function of your political leanings.

To me, the most interesting section of the entire book concerned mirror neurons. This was a fundamental recent discovery in biology. The relevance to robotics is still perhaps speculative. Several robotics researchers have attempted to use it as inspiration for teaching a robot via its visual input and processing system. This contrasts greatly with the traditional teaching use of rule based formal logic, often involving the predicate calculus. The results described in the text are early but promising.

One slight curiosity is the relative deprecating of military applications. These are numerous and scattered throughout various chapters. Covering uses like landmine detectors, or the aerial Predator and its relatives that have seen much recent use in Iraq and Afghanistan for surveillance and attack. But at the top level of the Contents, there is no section on the military. And if you go to the Index, "military" is absent, while, for example, "mind reading" gets 2 entries. The downplaying of the military is especially puzzling given the historically prominent role of the US military in funding advanced robotics research.

These volumes contain chapters by various authors who are well-respected mathematicians and statisticians, providing interesting, useful mathematics with a variety of insights. (Although I am one of the authors, this review is not about my chapters, but those written by others; about my own work, I hereby let others comment; I remain neutral. To do otherwise would be inappropriate and self-referential). However, the other authors deserve acknowledgment of their excellent work.

With such an extensive selection of male photography books, it is rare to find one that is a true pleasure to look at time and time again. Stanley Stellar has combined great skill and a host of subjects to produce a book that is truly unique. Most books of this nature have a certain theme or mood attached to them. This is not the case with Stellar Men. There are photographs ranging from the beuaty of the male form to the darker side of homo-eroticism. This book has something to offer for almost every artistic eye. Stellar has an ability to focus more on the importance and impact of the male form to art, than just glorifying the nude body. Every page gives an example of this ability in a varitety of ways. Overall, I feel Stellar Men surpasses "coffee table" status, and has found it's place as an example of photography and art. Enjoy!