Cometa-Last Queen of Sheba, a novel of the NEW ERA by GISELA (Gisela: nom-de-plume for the author - AA DaSilva) is sort of compilation of nine big essays which emerged from 1999 to 2004, when the author studied Languages and Psychology at London Guildhall and Alcal de Henares (Madrid). Only two of those 9 essays were written in English, however English Language appeared as most appropriate for the first attempt at developing something as a new thesis on the sweet illusion of happiness. Its a rough attempt (awkward at places, along these 9 long chapters) to depict a clear-cut picture of those quixotesque characters who try to weigh-up about the rat-race society and any possibility of transcendence in human life. The hug of Mother-Earth as Rod seems to advocate or, the Philosophy of the day as Pablo preaches it from behind the bar of his Caf Can this be enough help, along this nebulous adventure we call LIFE? Perhaps Portuguese originals (22 chapters, under the title Cometa-em busca da felicidade), which is soon expected to be handed to publishers, can bring more clarity to what we mean by sweet illusion of happiness. Cometa which is Spanish for kite should be understood as conscience, innocence or just soul... a bit like any last ray of hope to the old and decrepit King Solomon with no more hope for happiness than some last sweet look from his Queen of Sheba. ----------- Me? est? p????s???? ?s da??t?? Nothing is as inspirational as death, allegedly from Diogenes, 450 BC: this could be the very appropriate caption for Cometa-Last Queen of Sheba, but it just appears as a logo for the chapter II. Cadunt altis de montibus umbrae when twilight replaces sunshine, from Publius Ovidius Naso (40 BC 20AD) is a poetic quotation from Metamorphosis, opening chapter V of Cometa-Last Queen of Sheba. Circumstance and leitmotiv: September 11, early afternoon in Lisbon waiting for the train to Madridthose images from TV took my attention from Rebelion de las Masas and made me very sad indeed. ? Typing error: on page IX where it reads 1942 it should read 2042. http://pt.www.netlog.com/tonywriter http://www.facebook.com/#!/Tonywriter1946

A. A. DaSilva nasceu em Vilar de Nantes, Chaves, quando pelos fi ns de Fevereiro de 1946 os salgueiros começavam a lançar os primeiros botoes. Estudou Humanidades com os Padres Vicentinos. Frequentou o ISEE (Instituto Superior de Estudos Eclesiásticos), em Lisboa, onde cursou Filosofia e Teologia. Trabalhou em Cabinda, para a Cabinda Gulf Oil, como intérprete e "Time-keeper". Foi professor, empregado bancário e chefe de Importaçoes e Exportaçoes, em Moçambique, onde casou e viveu quase vinte anos. Na London Guildhal University, em ligaçao com a La Universidad de Alcalá de Henares cursou Psicologia e Línguas Modernas. Vive em Londres e aí trabalha em ligaçao com várias Organizaçoes ligadas à Saúde Mental.

As we all know, there is a kind of lazy pleasure in useless and out-of-the-way erudition-The compilation and translation of this volume have given us a great deal of such pleasure; we hope the reader will share some of the fun we felt when ransacking the

A Budget of Paradoxes, originally published in 1915, is mathematician Augustus De Morgan's most accessible and entertaining work. Well-known for his wit, De Morgan takes aim at those people he calls "paradoxers," which in modern terms would most closely resemble crackpots. Paradoxers, however, are not crazy, necessarily-rather, they hold views wildly outside the accepted sphere. If you believed the world was round when everyone else knew that it was flat, you would be a paradoxer. In this book, De Morgan reviews a number of books from his own library written by such "crackpots" who claim to have solved a great many of the puzzles of mathematics and science, including squaring a circle, creating perpetual motion, and overcoming gravity. Each is thoroughly put in his place in ways both entertaining and informative to readers. Skeptics, students of science, and anyone who likes pondering a puzzle will find this book a delightful read. British mathematician AUGUSTUS DE MORGAN (1806-1871) invented the term mathematical induction. Among his many published works is Trigonometry and Double Algebra (1849).