a Kempis, Thomas, and Aloysius Croft (Translator), Harold Bolton (Translator), The Imitation of Christ, Dover Publications 2003 Amazon Product Description 'This classic, second only to the Bible for religious instruction and inspiration, has brought understanding and comfort to millions for centuries. Written in a candid and conversational style, the topics include liberation from worldly inclinations, preparation and consolations of prayer, and the place of eucharistic communion in a devout life.' 
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Callen, Herbert B, Thermodynamics: an introduction to the physical theories of equilibrium thermostatics and irreversible thermodynamics, John Wiley and Sons 1962 Preface: 'In writing this book I have forgone the conventional inductive development of thermodynamics in favor of a postulational approach, which I believe is more direct and logically simple. . . . In order to motivate the postulates, an elementary qualitative statistical discussion is given in an appendix, and some appeal is made to experimental observations, but the spirit of the development is that the postulates are best justified by a posteriori success of the theory rather than by a priori proof.'back

Clausewitz, Carl von, and Michael Eliot Howard (translator), Peter Paret (Introduction), On War, Princeton University Press 1999 Amazon Product Description 'On War is the most significant attempt in Western history to understand war, both in its internal dynamics and as an instrument of policy. Since the work's first appearance in 1832, it has been read throughout the world, and has stimulated generations of soldiers, statesmen, and intellectuals.' 
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Cornwell, John, Seminary Boy, Fourth Estate 2006 Jacket: 'In one of the most extraordinary memoirs of recent years, the acclaimed writer John Cornwell tells us of a world now vanished: the colourful community of priests in charge; the boys and their sometimes intense and passionate friendships; the hovering threat of abuse over this cloistered environment. And he tells us of his struggle to come to terms with a shameful secret from his London childhood — a vicious sexual attack that haunts his time at Cotton. 
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Fortun, Mike, and Herbert J Bernstein, Muddling Through: Pursuing Science and Truths in the Twenty-First Century, Counterpoint 1998 Amazon editorial review: 'Does science discover truths or create them? Does dioxin cause cancer or not? Is corporate-sponsored research valid or not? Although these questions reflect the way we're used to thinking, maybe they're not the best way to approach science and its place in our culture. Physicist Herbert J. Bernstein and science historian Mike Fortun, both of the Institute for Science and Interdisciplinary Studies (ISIS), suggest a third way of seeing, beyond taking one side or another, in Muddling Through: Pursuing Science and Truths in the 21st Century. While they deal with weighty issues and encourage us to completely rethink our beliefs about science and truth, they do so with such grace and humor that we follow with ease discussions of toxic-waste disposal, the Human Genome Project, and retooling our language to better fit the way science is actually done.' 
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Hofstadter, Douglas R, Goedel Escher Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, Basic/Harvester 1979 An illustrated essay on the philosophy of mathematics. Formal systems, recursion, self reference and meaning explored with a dazzling array of examples in music, dialogue, text and graphics. 
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Hofstadter, Douglas R, and Daniel C Dennett, The Mind's I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self & Soul, Bantam 1985 Jacket: 'In this unique, mind-jolting book, DH, the author of G¨del, Escher, Bach, the intellectual best seller that won the 1980 Pulitzer Prize, and Philosopher Daniel Dennett, author of the widely acclaimed Brainstorms, explore the meaning of self and consciousness through the perspectives of literature, artificial intelligence, psychology and much more. . . . ' 
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Tolle, Echhart, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, New World Library 1999 Amazon product description: 'Eckhart Tolle is emerging as one of today's most inspiring teachers. In The Power of Now, a #1 national bestseller, the author describes his transition from despair to self-realization soon after his 29th birthday. Tolle took another ten years to understand this transformation, during which time he evolved a philosophy that has parallels in Buddhism, relaxation techniques, and meditation theory but is also eminently practical. In The Power of Now he shows readers how to recognize themselves as the creators of their own pain, and how to have a pain-free existence by living fully in the present. Accessing the deepest self, the true self, can be learned, he says, by freeing ourselves from the conflicting, unreasonable demands of the mind and living "present, fully and intensely, in the Now."' 
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Scholes, R J, R Biggs, "A bioldiversity intactness index", Nature, 434, 7029, 3 March, page 45-49. 'The nations of the world have set themselves a target of reducing the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. Here we propose a biodiversity intactness index (BII) for assessing progress toward this target that is simple and practical - but sensitive to important factors that influence biodiversity status - and which satisfies the criteria for policy relevance set by the Convention of Biological Diversity. ... '. back

Wilson, Kenneth G, "The Renormalisation Group and Critical Phenomena", Reviews of Modern Physics, 55, , July 1983, page 583. back

Wilson, Kenneth G, "Problems in physics with many scales of length", Scientific American, 241, 2, August 1979, page 140-157. 'Physical systems as varied as magnets and fluids are alike in having fluctuations in structure over a vast range of sizes. A novel method called the renormalisation group has been invented to explain them'. back

Adam Lee, Are we ready to confrant death without religion?, 'For centuries, the Christian church wrote the script for how westerners deal with death. There was the deathbed confession, the last rites, the pallbearers, the obligatory altar call, the burial ceremony, the stone, the angels-and-harps imagery. Yet that archaic and stereotypical vision of death, like a mossy and weather-worn statue, is crumbling – and in its place, something new and better has a chance to grow.' back

Dana Priest and William M. Arkin, Top Secret America: A hidden world, growing beyond control, 'The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work.' back

David Sarna Galdi, The Real Traitors in Israel are Not the Arabs, 'Mr. Harel’s argument is based not on truths, but on what can only be a hateful, populist desire to sow fear and disparage Arabs. The truth that Mr. Harel has chosen to ignore is that most Israeli Arabs live in harmony with their Jewish Israeli neighbors, whatever their political opinions or allegiances might be.' back

Jacon S. Hacker and Paul Pierson, Clinton's Bold Vision, Hidden in Plain Sight, 'Mrs. Clinton is heir to an enormously successful bipartisan governing tradition. Yet this tradition has been disowned by the Republican Party and has lost allure within a significant segment of the Democratic Party; it also runs sharply against the grain of current public sentiments about government and politicians. In this hostile environment, it should come as no surprise that Mrs. Clinton has proved reluctant to lead the charge for a more balanced discussion of government’s role. back

Neera Tanden and Matt Brown, New Ideas for the Future of the Progressive Movement, back

Paul Krugman, Republican Elite's Reign of Disdain, 'the argument that the social safety net causes social decay by coddling slackers runs up against the hard truth that every other advanced country has a more generous social safety net than we do, yet the rise in mortality among middle-aged whites in America is unique: Everywhere else, it is continuing its historic decline.' back

Sharia - Wikipdia, Sharia - Wikipdia, the free encyclopedia, 'Sharia, Islamic sharia or Islamic law ( . . is the religious legal system governing the members of the Islamic faith. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam, particularly the Quran and the Hadith. The term sharia comes from the Arabic language term sharīʿah, which means a body of moral and religious law derived from religious prophecy, as opposed to human legislation.' back