Bunch of stuff; some good, some bad
346499
Equipment: Canon Rebel T1i

Overall, this package was a great deal for the money. The branded Canon grip alone costs more than the whole package. I was most excited about the grip, the extra batteries and the battery charger. The remote was more of a bonus for me and I considered the cleaning kit to be junk.

  The good:
Grip fits perfectly and provides storage for the battery cover which needs to be removed. The grip accommodates two knock off Canon batteries or four AA batteries. The shutter button and wheel on the grip can be enabled or disabled. I would be aware that the grip considerably increases the height of the camera. It barely fit into my Lowepro bag with the 18-55mm lens on, and did not fit with the 55-250mm lens on.

Two provided batteries and battery charger work very well. I was in Europe for two weeks and the two batteries lasted the whole time in the grip. I also left the camera on a few times in my bag, but Canon's power management took care of that. I charged all the batteries before my trip with the included charger. It worked with no problems. The charger also comes with a car adapter. I didn't try it out, but it would be convenient in case charging was necessary on the road.

  The not-so-good:
The remote control works with the T1i. All buttons just seem to trigger the shutter, but nothing else. No instructions are provided, but it worked out of the box. Would be nice to set a timer with the remote control, and to trigger multiple shots, but none of this is possible from what I can see.

  The bad:
The tripod is useless. Any serious DSLR will cause it to collapse. I think it would collapse under the weight of my point and shoot. The cleaning kit was basic and almost as useless, but these things are the "extras".

The package I received had a sealed grip and batteries. The cleaning kit, remote, and tripod looked as if they had been previously opened and re-boxed, though. The instructions said to remove the plastic battery protector for the remote and it was not present. The cleaning kit box was a little "worn" despite the perfect condition of the other packages in the box. Double check that what you need is in good condition and works well, and you should be okay.
1709930
This is an interesting book for sure. It has a handful of really great ideas, some okay ones, and some that are just borderline stupid in my opinion. Some of the projects are also way, way outside the skill set of most of the weekend warriors I know, myself included. Also, toward the end of the book, they sort of change from projects to tips on tool use and care. Welcome information, but not exactly what I thought I'd be getting. Still, if you can get this book for cheap it could well be worth it, as it can be a lot of fun to read and plan with your family or partner even if you never get around to actually doing the projects.

I'd say get it and enjoy, just don't expect anything miraculous.
784262
Most of the ideas are iffy.  Some good ones though and most importantly some good websites.
2000350
Wicked cool.  Contents can be a bit disturbing.
4363523
Comes with a lot of stuff. Some of it is real good and some of it seems like crap, but definitely worth the money
2196322
Some interesting stuff, but really could have used a good editor and organizer. Wanders a bit.
1269275
This anthology's title is off by one letter: it should be called Sad Trips, not Bad Trips.  The phrase 'bad trips' (and especially the book's front cover description: "A sometimes terrifying, sometimes hilarious collection of writing on the perils of the road") suggests to me the journeys that are hell to live through but fun to look back on, like, say, the time I spent three days trapped in the Boise, Idaho airport with what seemed to be the entire population of the state of Idaho.  Those are the kinds of stories I expected from this anthology.
But in Bad Trips, the editor gives us a few funny stories along with tales alternately grim, gruesome, and depressing beyond all description.  Just a few examples of the topics covered: a walk through a refugee village full of starving children, the torture, death, and dismemberment of civilians in El Salvador, the city of Hue shortly after it was destroyed by the Vietcong and American armies.  These are important tales, and they need to be told, but they seem somewhat inappropriate for a book purporting to be a light-hearted, funny, travel anthology.
The editor made a few other strange decisions in assembling this collection, and while one works, most don't.  I laud his attempt to include the work of some great writers, and this pays off: the selections by David Mamet, Anita Desai, Martin Amis, and John Updike are wonderful, and there's a poem by Al Purdy that every off-the-beaten-track traveler should read.  But the book also includes a number of extracts from works of fiction, which jars - part of the joy of travel stories is that they're *true*.
Overall, the strength of some of the individual selections doesn't make up for the strange choices the editor has made. Look for it used, or check it out of the library.
1605586
I guess any list is subject to debate, so I would say Mr. Philbin has come up with a considerably good list. In fact some of the items we take for granted are in this list. Overall this list looks good to me.

However, the text disappointed me. Every invention has three important parts: 1. Science and 2. Story of invention and 3. Story of the inventor. Science part should explain how the gizmo works. Story of the invention should tell how it was invented. And the story of the inventor should tell about the inventor. Instead of finding the real science, story and timeline behind these inventions, the author skims the subject at a very high level, sometimes wandering into unnecessary description of politics.

Inclusion of Condom as an invention caused me not to buy this for my child. I borrowed it from a local library with full intention of purchasing it later. But that particular invention is a sensitive subject. Not arguing whether the author should have included it or not. Just saying that because of that I don't find myself comfortable to give it to my son for independent reading. Others may disagree with me and I would respect their opinion.

Overall I like the book. So three stars instead of two.
3872939
Was a lot of product, but not great quality.
4917686
With 2 long discs here, GOODNESS GRACIOUS ME has a lot of good to great material on it. What stands out to me the most here is Sellers' amazing ability to do a great variety of voices, including his British upper-class snob, his British commoner, and his man from India. Sixteen tracks are songs or include songs. However, some of the material here is NOT among his best work. Disc 1 is almost all good to great stuff, but on disc 2 the quality drops badly.

I take issue with a couple of things. For one, the comments on the front cover suggest that this is ALL comedy material, such as saying this set is "His Best Comedy Moments." OK, about 93% of this is comedy, but some is not meant to be funny at all. For instance, "Jakka and the Flying Saucers" is a very well done children's fantasy story, but is not meant to be funny. Likewise, several songs, such as "I Haven't Told Her, She Hasn't Told Me," are nicely sung by Sellers, but aren't meant to be funny. Also, I would have left off the few tracks that are mean-spirited, namely "Setting Fire to the Policeman" and "Auntie Rotter."

Technically these CDs are very good.  The sound quality is great, with very low distortion. There is the glitch that "The Contemporary Scene, part 2" on disc 2 is actually a repeat of "Face to Face" on disc 1. And the CD case is very attractively done, with good photos of Peter Sellers and 2 including Sophia Loren, a good little essay on Sellers and comedy, and recording data including dates. The best feature of this set is how generous it is, since disc 1 runs 75:13, while disc 2 runs 75:10.

Overall, I think GOODNESS GRACIOUS ME is fairly good, but the EMI Comedy disc of Peter Sellers entitled&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Classic-Songs-and-Sketches/dp/B00004WEUL/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Classic Songs and Sketches</a>" is a more consistently high-quality disc.
4188175
The second volume in the BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER OMNIBUS is a bit of a mixed bag. Featuring diverse artwork from several distinctive artists, this a weird collection, chronologically speaking: we start out with two pre-season One stories, then it's on to a few Spike and Dru tales; the next times we meet Buffy, it's Seasons Two and Three, with Angel vacillating between good and evil. With all this jumping around, it can prove difficult at times to place the stories in the overall context of the show. That said, it's still a (mostly) enjoyable collection.

My favorite piece by far is also the longest: "A Stake to the Heart," which deals with the Summers's divorce and Buffy, Dawn, and Joyce's subsequent relocation to Sunnydale. In an effort to assume Buffy's pain and self-doubt, Angel unwittingly unleashes malignancy demons on the Summers family. Aesthetically pleasing and unexpectedly touching, it alone is worth the price of admission. Also enjoyable is the short piece "Angels We Have Seen On High" - though there isn't much by way of plot, the style is uncharacteristically "cartoony," in editor Scott Allie's words. Most likely you'll love it or hate it. (Think: Puppet Angel.)

"Queen of Hearts," "Paint the Town Red," and "Ring of Fire" (the first two being Spike and Dru exclusives) are by Ryan Sook, "one of the most controversial artists to have worked on Buffy." While I don't mind his dark noir style, the characters are way off: Spike and Dru look a good fifty years older than the actors who play them. In the same vein, not all of the Scooby Gang is immediately recognizable in "The Dust Waltz": Willow and Cordelia and nearly indistinguishable (Willow hair is a blah beige color!), and Xander has been transformed into quite the beefcake.

And then there's the short piece "MacGuffins" - which might have been fun but for the artwork. Here we have a ridiculously (one might even say "comically" - hardee har har!) oversexualized Buffy, complete with larger-than-life breasts and legs spread wide for the male gaze in no less than three panels. At least "The Dust Waltz" compensated for Buffy's exaggerated mammary glands by giving her oversized biceps to match.

As if one needs to improve upon Sarah Michelle Gellar. *As if!*
4475996
For the most part, it's a good-functional set. There are minor issues, like the flexible extension being nearly useless, the 2 extra screw bits not really having a proper mounting when stored, and accessing stored tools not being too seamless; but those are forgivable. I do have major issue with the tweezers that are included though. There are 3 included, but they were useless to me on a project I was working on because the tips for each of them was uneven.
1068646
Lots of choices, some workable, some not. But the variety opens up other possibilities.
1834635
Good summary, but. But all over the place.
2615923
This is a good book if you are trying match a name with a product.  And appreciably, this book includes a wide variety of common products that would be seen in a variety of social strata, not just with the upper crust, the design elites or design snobs.  Also, it gives for each product a brief history and bits of interesting background trivia.  Everything is nice and easy to read.
Unfortunately, things to nitpick are glaring: A lot of the text is pretty subjective ("I...," "I...," "I...," all the way through).  The "qualitative ratings" are supposed to be objective, but given that the reader can directly compare one product to the next, for example the Vespa to a Vodka Bottle, it is a guess that these are also subjective (The book says the Glock 17 9mm semi-automatic handgun is more usable than Bic pen or a Refrigerator.  An industrially manufactured and battery-hungry Maglite is as equally sustainable as the Pot-in-Pot Cooler).  "Deconstructing" in the title is a bit mis-leading... it would have been grand if it would have given the reader more than one image or picture per product (to help explain form or workings), information on manufacturing procedures, a price range, any variations, or dates of manufacture for the items that are no longer made.  It is hard not to notice that some of the images are not even real pictures of the product, but somebody's obvious attempt at computer rendering-they look terribly fake.  The many professional contributors to this book are  knowledgeable and respected, so for a few instances, why did this book choose to print their input when their contribution didn't add anything useful, or worse, when they openly disclosed that they haven't owned, used, or even touched the products they are reviewing?
4608108
A collection of mostly fairly short critical and skeptical essays. Most of them have been published on Goldcares column on Guardian (apparently the best newspaper in Britain). There were a few pretty random and not so readable or interesting ones (like a foreword to a book about small railroads  what did that have to do with this book?), but most of the essays were very good, even when some of them concerned pretty local details like some intricacies of NHS, while many have wider interest. Especially interesting were a couple articles about the Medical Hypothesis journal, the chosen journal where the Finnish scammer, Valkee, publishes its studies about how an ear light cures seasonal fatigue. The quality of that journal seems to be even worse than I imagined. Certainly there would be a dire need for a similar journalist in Finland, who is capable of critique stupid misuses of numbers, statistics and mathematics in journalism and in public science reporting which is made government and other official or semi-official organizations. Bad reporting and poor grasp of numbers is truly international. As a whole this is not as good and interesting book as Bad Science was, but very interesting one anyway. The book contains exhaustive references, so many them that I was surprised when the actual book ended  as according to the reading app there was still a significant percentage of the book left.
2655568
Some information is slightly off and even contradicting at times in different places of the book, but the abundance of content redeems it.