Book Description
This book is a comprehensive treatment of star formation, one of the most active fields of modern astronomy. The reader is guided through the subject in a logically compelling manner. Starting from a general description of stars and interstellar clouds, the authors delineate the earliest phases of stellar evolution. They discuss formation activity not only in the Milky Way, but also in other galaxies, both now and in the remote past. Theory and observation are thoroughly integrated, with the aid of numerous figures and images. In summary, this volume is an invaluable resource, both as a text for physics and astronomy graduate students, and as a reference for professional scientists.
Book Description
The aim of this book, with its superb step-by-step photographs and detailed diagrams, is to enable every owner to understand the workings of an outboard motor (2 or 4 stroke) and be able to fix it with relative ease. It includes:
* An explanation of the different parts that make up the engine and
how they interact
* How fuel is transformed into propulsion
* Regular maintenance and repair worksheets to help even the most
mechanically ignorant to work on their outboard engine with
confidence
* The most common causes of breakdown
* Troubleshooting tables to allow you to diagnose and fix the most
common engine problems
* Advice on how to winterize your outboard in one short afternoon
After reading this book, your outboard engine will no longer be a potential bother to you but an ally for better boating.
Average customer rating:
- A good beginning to a trilogy
- OK to a point...
- There's good SF, there's bad SF, and there's Libertarian SF
- A bit dry, but still a decent read...
- Pallas - Literature for the 21st Century
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Pallas
L. Neil Smith
Manufacturer: Tor Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 General
| Science Fiction
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
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The WarDove
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Hope
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Bretta Martyn (Henry Martyn)
-
The Mitzvah
-
The Probability Broach
ASIN: 0312856768 |
Customer Reviews:
A good beginning to a trilogy.......2005-05-31
When I first started reading this I thought to myself, "What a great idea". Meaning the encapsulation of an entire asteroid, terraforming the surface and then populating the resultant planetoid with people who represent the extremes of human organization. On the one hand there are the "rugged individualists" who live by a Covenant of Unanimous Consent and on the other the "ant farm" where "From each according to his ability and to each according to his need," and other Marxist platitudes are taken seriously. Anyone familiar with Smith's earlier works will be able to predict who the final "winner" will be but, as with many worthwhile things, the journey is the important part.
This book was, in part, inspired by a 1987 article "The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race" written by Jared Diamond. In the article, Diamond argues that, contrary to popular belief, agriculture was not an unalloyed blessing. However, where Diamond concentrates on the effects of agriculture on health and longevity, Smith illustrates through the contrasting societies on Pallas how it also enabled hierarchal religion, taxation, and the modern state. All three of which Smith sees as institutions to be cast aside as soon as possible.
I do have a few quibbles with the book, First, Smith imagines that handguns can fill the same technological niche as rifles do. This is a well known characteristic of Smith and should be expected in his stories. Secondly, a bit over halfway through the book "cold" fusion suddenly seems to work. There is no explanation of the whys and wherefores and it seem a bit too much like a Deus Ex Machina to be believable.
Some people will hate this book. It might be the guns or it might be the vision of free men and women living without the benefit of gods or governments telling them how to live. Or it might be some other of the ideas Smith plays with that make people uncomfortable. That is their loss. Science Fiction is at its core a literature of ideas and if you are interested in a vision of future mankind that doesn't condemn our descendants to cramped cities, cameras everywhere, armored LEO's, and being eaten (or worse) by slavering aliens then you may enjoy Pallas.
OK to a point..........2005-05-31
If it was just pure sci-fi without the lecturing OR a libertarian sci-fi book with a more realistic setting, I would have given it five stars. As it is, it is good enough for four.
The main character, Emerson Ngu, escapes from a U.N. colony on the terraformed asteroid of Pallas. Outside the colony people have set up a libertarian paradise. The book, the plot, is mostly the powers that be trying to bring him back OR, failing that, destroy the libertarian utopia.
This story is like The Probability Broach, where the main character is placed in a new society and, by learning the ropes, we learn a lot about the author's views on gun control, hunting, and the common good. If you're a libertarian, that's OK. If you're NOT, then it's just too much, too confusing, and maybe even enough to make a person give up after the first few chapters.
If you're new to Mr. Smith I would suggest taking the book slowly.
There's good SF, there's bad SF, and there's Libertarian SF.......2005-02-24
L. Neil Smith is similar to Robert Heinlein, in much the same way that a fish taco is similar to the Great Wall of China. Heinlein wrote novels, even going so far as to include archaic distractions such as plot and characters. There is no way of identifying "Pallas" as a novel, since the entire thing is one long lecture on the virtues of toting weapons and murdering anybody who's different from L. Neil Smith. This would be distressing enough, even without the fact that L. Neil Smith is insane. But he is, and things get ugly.
The book features somebody (I hesitate to say a character) named "Emerson Ngu" (Emerson Ngu?), who heroically escapes from a Stalinist commune run by "Gibson Altman" (Gibson Altman? And didn't Stalin kick the bucket in 1954?) Since anyone who isn't an utter moron could figure out the ending of the book without bothering to read it, I won't bother explaining it. The important point is that the book does not really contain anything other that Mr. Ngu lecturing on the virtues of libertarianism. So in short, if you're one of the college-aged losers who has sexual fantasies involving Ayn Rand and uses the word hardcore to describe Ludwig von Mises, then you might as well read this slop heap since you have nothing better to do with your miserable life. But if you're a normal person wondering whether there's any entertainment to be had in "Pallas", the answer is: NO. Mr. Smith truly is insane; I'm not just saying that. To give you some idea what you're up against, consider that in a recent column Smith accused George W. Bush of collaborating with Osama bin Laden.
But the point of the book is really this. What are Gibson Altman's traits? Well, he's an exile who's on the fringes of society, he sucks off the hard work of others, he spends his days reciting nonsensical political junk that no one else believes, and he knows that he has no future. In other words, he's a perfect duplicate of the college-aged Libertarians who sit around schmoozing off their parents' money while knowing that no one in the real world will ever care about their moronic "philosophy". Libertarianism is just a glurge fantasy about how the rest of us will eventually be dragged down by our own supposedly corrupt and decadent society. But of course that fantasy will forever remain a fantasy, nothing more. To truly understand how Smith and his ilk maintain such fanatic support among their microscopic fan club, what you truly need to understand is that these people are self-loathing. It's no surprise that they enjoy seeing Smith repeatedly kick their own mirror image.
L. Neil Smith is like Robert Heinlein in one way at least; they both represent extremes in their approach to human existence. About one of his greatest characters, Heinlein once said, "Lazarus Long is so in love with life that he refused to stop living it." The same could be said of Heinlein himself, whose soul lives on in his still-popular books though his body may have failed him. Heinlein loved life, loved himself, loved others, loved science, loved art, loved love, loved sex, and he poured his love for all those things into his books. Smith, on the other hand, hates everyone else almost as much as he hates himself. His hatred for the human race is so strong that he'd gladly wipe it out just to stop other people from getting the enjoyment of life that he's denied to himself. And the purpose of his fiction is to let himself slaughter off his enemies, which is virtually everyone, time and time again without giving them a chance to fight back. I used to be offended by junk like this, but "Pallas" is so pathetic that it isn't worth my while to be offended. I used to think that Terry Brooks was the worst author of all times. Congratulations, Mr. Brooks. Against all odds, and in defiance of smug predictions by so-called experts who insisted it was impossible, you've just reached number two.
A bit dry, but still a decent read..........2004-05-29
I must agree with the Publisher's Weekly reviewer on this one - it reads more like a manifesto in novel guise than a true novel. I love the politics and the ideas behind the story, but I did not enjoy the lack of character depth. Much like the colonies, the characters were black and white - in fact, it reminded me quite a bit of Rand's Atlas Shrugged in that respect. However, if you're not in it for the character development, I certainly recommend it for the contrasting politics.
Pallas - Literature for the 21st Century.......2002-09-09
Not many science fiction writers can actually create a new world populated by heroic, but real people - AND convey a sense of dynamic IDEAS about society and technology that yoju would WANT the future to become. L. Neil Smith has done just that with "Pallas", arguably his BEST BOOK ever (until the upcoming "Ceres", that is! :-) Pallas tells the story of a child inventor who grows up to become a hero amidst the largely, but not exclusively, liberty-loving colony on Pallas asteroid. While the enemy is obvious, the plot twists and turns are not. In science-fiction, its the IDEAS that count, and this book ROCKS with them. As good, if not better, than Robert Heinlein and Fred Pohl. Buy and read this book and enjoy!
Average customer rating:
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The Jewess Pallas Athena: This Too a Theory of Modernity
Barbara Hahn
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Jewish
| World
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| World
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Germany
| Europe
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Literary Theory
| History & Criticism
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Women's Studies
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
ASIN: 0691116148 |
Book Description
"The Jewess Pallas Athena"--a line from a poem by Paul Celan. It is a provocative phrase, cutting across cultures and traditions. But it poses questions: How to reconstruct a culture that has been destroyed? How to conceive of history after the catastrophes of the twentieth century?
This book begins in the mid-eighteenth century with the first Jewish women to raise their voices in German. It ends two hundred years later, with another group of Jewish women looking back at a country from which they had been expelled and to which they would never want to return. Among the many prominent female intellectuals and literary figures Barbara Hahn discusses are Hannah Arendt, Gertrud Kantorowicz, Rosa Luxemburg, Else Lasker-Schüler, Margarete Susman, and Rahel Levin Varnhagen. In examining their writing, she reflects upon the question of how German culture was constructed--with its inherent patterns of exclusion. This is a book about hope and despair, possibilities and preventions. We see attempts at dialogue between Christians and Jews, men and women, "Germans" and "Jews," attempts initiated by these women that, for the most part, remained unanswered. Finally, the book reconstructs the changing notions of the "Jewess," a key word in modern German history with its connotations of "salons," "beauty," and "esprit." And yet a word that is also disastrous, in which there culminated everything the dominant culture condemned as dangerous.
Average customer rating:
- Decidedly different and delightful
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Wales (Pallas Guides)
Peter Sager
Manufacturer: Cimino Publishing Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Great Britain
| Europe
| Travel
| Subjects
| Books
Wales
| Great Britain
| Europe
| Travel
| Subjects
| Books
Guidebooks
| Reference & Tips
| Travel
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Travel
| Subjects
| Books
General
| England
| Europe
| History
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1873429584 |
Book Description
Featuring 64 color photographs, 105 b/w photos and 135 illustrations.
Customer Reviews:
Decidedly different and delightful.......2006-04-08
If you really want to know about Wales before you travel this is the guide for you. This is a book to be read and digested not just skimmed through. It is rich in history, art and literature. It gives a deep understanding of the people, the land and its culture. It is not a travel guide per se but will certainly inform your travels. This is not for the lets hit the high points crowd.
Book Description
By means of superb step-by-step photos and detailed diagrams, Jean-Luc Pallas explains in simple terms the operation of a diesel engine, and shows how to maintain as well as repair it should it break down. He explains:
* The different engine parts and what they do.
* How the engine propels the boat
* Simple maintenance tasks to keep the engine in good working
order
* Typical problem areas which can lead to breakdown
* Troubleshooting tables to enable you to diagnose and then fix the
problem
* How to winterize your diesel engine in one short afternoon
This book will be an invaluable on-the-spot references for when things go wrong.
Book Description
Praise for the First Edition . . .
"A unique piece of work, a book for electronics engineering, in general, but well suited and excellently applicable also to biomedical engineering . . . I recommend it with no reservation, congratulating the authors for the job performed." -IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology
"Describes a broad range of sensors in practical use and some circuit designs; copious information about electronic components is supplied, a matter of great value to electronic engineers. A large number of applications are supplied for each type of sensor described . . . This volume is of considerable importance."-Robotica
In this new edition of their successful book, renowned authorities Ramon Pallàs-Areny and John Webster bring you up to speed on the latest advances in sensor technology, addressing both the explosive growth in the use of microsensors and improvements made in classical macrosensors. They continue to offer the only combined treatment for both sensors and the signal-conditioning circuits associated with them, following the discussion of a given sensor and its applications with signal-conditioning methods for this type of sensor. New and expanded coverage includes:
* New sections on sensor materials and microsensor technology
* Basic measurement methods and primary sensors for common physical quantities
* A wide range of new sensors, from magnetoresistive sensors and SQUIDs to biosensors
* The widely used velocity sensors, fiber-optic sensors, and chemical sensors
* Variable CMOS oscillators and other digital and intelligent sensors
* 68 worked-out examples and 103 end-of-chapter problems with annotated solutions
Customer Reviews:
Not Good.......2006-03-15
I usually do not take time to write a review. However, if you are considering using this book to teach a sensors course, do not! THere are multiple mistakes within the text, including grammatical errors and incorrect equations. The questions at the end of the chapter are good, however the answers in the back of the book are incorrect at least 25% of the time. The organiztion of the book is good for me, but until the errors are corrected, do not use this edition.
Book Description
Written by one of Italy's most distinguished journalists,
The Pallas Guide to Rome is for those who have not yet visited the city and for those whose efforts to understand Rome have been frustrated by its complexity. Rich in accessible information, it is bound to make your visit to Rome more meaningful. The book is arranged into realistically timed, carefully organized themed itineraries, which can be customized according to your own particular needs and length of stay. At the same time, this is one of the most comprehensive guides to Rome available, making it ideal for any traveler looking for their own route around the city. Full indices, including a biographical dictionary of artists, make the information easy to access, and hundreds of maps, and photos make orientation foolproof.
Customer Reviews:
I wish this book had been available when I was in Rome!.......2007-03-16
I Wish this book had been available when I was in Rome. At 700+ pages, it's not for everybody, but if you want more in-depth knowledge than the average guidebook provides, then this is the book for you. For example: this book has six illustrations showing how the modern road network overlies the ancient imperial fora - one double page plus five smaller diagrams. This is vital for getting a sense of how it looked in ancient times. Another example: this book devotes seven pages to the fascinating three-level church of San Clemente; most guidebooks give it less than a page! I could go on and on.
It's organized around 10 walks (Rick Steve's guide also has fine walks) plus a number of detours, but these can be treated as entries to the wealth of historical detail. Then there are three indices: an index of artists; an index of people and gods, and an index of places. These can be very useful. For example, if you decide you want to spend a weekend doing a 'Caravaggio tour,' (as was suggested in a March 2007 Smithsonian article) just look him up in the index and make your plans.
I should point out that the 'hotels and restaurants' section of the guidebook is fairly minimal. For restaurant selection we found 'Blue Guide' to be the most reliable, so foodies should supplement their Lucentini with one. My favorite map of Rome is the Rough Guide map; it's made of tougher tyvek-like material so it withstands plenty of opening and closing.
Absolutely indispensable.......2006-12-24
How I wish I had had this book when I lived in Rome many years ago. Everything is in here -- street by street, door by door, every detail is covered. This is not a guide for the person who goes to Rome with a tour group led by somebody carrying an umbrella that everybody follows like lemmings. It's for people who aspire to a certain savvy in their normal, at-home lives who want to K-N-O-W the gorgeous, mesmerizing city of Rome. On a recent visit back to Italy, I used this guide and was amazed at what I discovered. But not only does the author explain the history and aesthetic importance of the sights you see, but gives you the practical information to make it easy for you to see them! [It's great to have a list of popes and emperors in the back of the book, so I can check when Nero or Sixtus V reigned. Helps to understand the monuments. (You're not going to find this in Fodor's!!!) Plus info on bus/subway routes, bio's of the artists and architects, extensive discussions of the artistic styles of each era, etc.] I wouldn't buy this book if I were only going to spend 2 days in Rome, but definitely would find it worth the money for 3 1/2 to 4 days or more. It's really the definitive guide in English, no question.
Wow! What a wonderful and charming guide book!!!!.......2006-10-08
For decades, the undisputed "gold standard" of Rome guidebooks was
Georgina Masson's Companion Guide to Rome. Which I liked. But Lucentini's guide has taken over that spot in most critics' eyes and certainly mine. I just loved it. "The Lucentini," as the Germans affectionately call it, has the unique feature of being divided into two parts: one that's readable at your home or hotel before hitting the streets of Rome, and a second to be "read on the spot." That helps a reader absorb key background information before going, then learn relevant facts about each site on the spot without buckling under the barrage of information that it would take to explain it thoroughly. Lucentini, a veteran journalist from Rome, presents a personal,in-depth, exuberant and superbly organized look at the city where his heart lies. That is, accessible to all. The book is huge because, quite simply, Rome has more to see than possibly any other city. The usual, cookie-cutter pocket guides can't give you a real feel for the place. But Lucentini breaks this complex, otherwise confusing metropolis into a handful of digestible walks, each with a single overriding theme. They're set out roughly in order of importance so that a visitor can make the most out of a trip of any length.
If you're going to Rome and want to have a truly fun and informative tour of this rich and complex city I recommend this book wholeheartedly. There is simply no better guide book out there. Clearly Lucentini has fallen in love with this amazingly rich city and after using this guide.....I have to say....."so have I.....so have I!"
Average customer rating:
- A Great Compilation for Great Wines
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Great Bordeaux Wines (Pallas Guides)
James Seely
Manufacturer: Cimino Publishing Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Spirits
| Drinks & Beverages
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| Subjects
| Books
Wine
| Drinks & Beverages
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| Subjects
| Books
| Buying Guides
| Cellars
| Champagne
| Collecting
| Food & Wine
| Wine & Winemaking
General
| Cooking, Food & Wine
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1873429215 |
Customer Reviews:
A Great Compilation for Great Wines.......2000-02-21
This really ought to be a quintessential book for those who love red clarets from Bordeaux. The pictures demonstrate what these chateaux should look like - which helps readers remember other important wine-making statistics. Tasting notes provide good guidance on recent vintages, including those yet to be released to the open market. A must-see for wine lovers.
Book Description
Third in the series on Stakeholder Management, this volume presents a wide array of case studies to demonstrate how Stakeholder Management strategies are customised specifically to companies’ requirements to fulfil their long term business goals. Actively managing internal (employees) and external (customers, shareholder) stakeholders is crucial for companies’ success nowadays. In addition, this volume discusses the benefits of using other management concepts such as Six Sigma (a method that analyses and limits process variation) in conjunction with the TRI*M methodology. The reader will benefit from insights into planning and implementing successful Stakeholder Management strategies – be it for employees, customers or for focussed communication strategies.
Average customer rating:
- L.A. Pie - Have a Slice
- Blown Away
- Incarnational Ministry
- Not the Tinseltown you see on TV
|
A Different Side of Hollywood: White Girls Don't Get Shot
Amanda L. Updegraff
Manufacturer: PublishAmerica
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
Inspirational
| Spirituality
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1424109809 |
Book Description
In 1998, Mandy L. Updegraff moved to Hollywood to be a missionary with the Presbyterian Church through an organization called The Hollywood Urban Project (HUP). Her memoir documents the inward struggle to see herself as God sees her in a town full of extraordinarily beautiful people. During the five years that Mandy spent at HUP, she battled depression as well as her ethnic identity as a white woman serving a community of Latino immigrants. Mandy found herself initiated into a world of gangs and violence, a far cry from her suburban upbringing. Hollywood life also brought many deep relationships and transforming experiences. Her own stories are entwined with the lives of her neighbors, who offer courageous and moving examples of what it means to be faithful.
Customer Reviews:
L.A. Pie - Have a Slice.......2006-04-19
Okay, full disclosure time: I know the author. But watch this: BIAS MODE - OFF. There, now I'm unbiased. Ready? Here we go.
Have you ever seen "Training Day," "Collateral," "Get Shorty," "Crash," or even "Shopgirl?" Have you ever read Bernie Brillstein's book, Eszterhas' book, or even the Neil Strauss' Motley Crue book? If you haven't - then see them, read them, and then pick this book up and read it too (in that order). Why? What do they have in common? Los Angeles, of course. They're all unique LA stories. LA is HUGE, and thusly a lot of individual stories happen here at once; a lot of different people from opposite ends of the universe cross paths every day. The author of this particular story missed the 'cross' paths part and simply collided with the opposite end of the universe. This is the snapshot of that collision. "A Different Side of Hollywood" is an engaging memoir - heartfelt, honest, and real.
Blown Away.......2006-01-28
This book pulled me in from the minute I opened it. I'm not a big reader, so it takes a lot to get me interested and hooked on a book. This one grabbed me right away. I love the stories the author tells, and she writes in a very simple form that's easy to follow. The book takes you on a journey through her life, and what a journey it is! I highly recommend this. A wonderful first book for this author. You go girl!
Incarnational Ministry.......2006-01-23
In her first literary effort, Mandy Updegraff offers a fast-paced, fresh, and fascinating account of leaving college behind an becoming a missionary in the inner city. This book is the first-hand reflections of a remarkable young woman as she transitions from the insulated world of a small midwestern college to the sometimes harsh streets of Hollywood.
The Hollywood Urban Project is an 18-year old ministry to the urban poor that places young college graduates right in the middle of the world of the urban challenges of Los Angeles.
This book might become required reading for undergraduate and seminary courses on cross cultural studies and urban missions. Prepare to have your preconcieved notions of inner city life challenged, as you journey alongside Mandy as she confronts her own fears and ideals in a completely new world.
This book is candid and sometimes raw in its description of inner city life, and death. Prepare to meet remarkable people, doing courageous things for the cause of Christ.
Not the Tinseltown you see on TV.......2005-12-24
This honest memoir tackles the heartbreaking issues of an urban neighborhood as seen through the eyes of an suburbanite with a passionate heart. It's a slice of reality for anyone who thinks Hollywood is all about glitz and glamour. The author skillfully displays her broken self as she tries to find healing in an unlikely place- in an immigrant neighborhood in South Hollywood.
Books:
- The Island of Doctor Moreau
- The Life of the Bee
- The Longest Day: The Classic Epic of D-Day
- The Nanotech War (Star Trek Voyager)
- The Populist Moment: A Short History of the Agrarian Revolt in America (Galaxy Books)
- The Tery: The Definitive Edition - Signed
- The Third Millenium
- The Truth: A Novel of Discworld
- The VOYAGE OF THE SPACE BEAGLE
- The Warlock in Spite of Himself (The Warlock Series)
Books Index
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