A New Perspective on HST
358771
I grew up during Truman's presidency and being politically biased, I did not have much regard for this chief executive.  As I matured and studied, I found much admire in Truman's candor and policies.  As the generations passed, historians have consistently ranked Truman as a better than average president.  This biography approaches HST as a somewhat flawed individual whose great love for his wife, Bess, and his daughter, Margaret, was always prioritized into second place by his political responsibilities.  Compared to McCullough's masterful work, TRUMAN, this bio is brief but fair.  This perspective did not diminish my esteem for HST but it did make me appreciate how much sacrifice of family and relaxation is demanded by the US Presidency.
4618871
I received an early copy of the book from the publisher. As a former programming book author and programming language junkie, I was too curious not to find out about Dr. Stephen Wolframs latest work. The author is a software pioneer who had launched Mathematica, now in its tenth version, in 1988. A few years ago, he launched Alpha Wolfram as a web based service. The book itself is an elementary introduction, by Dr. Wolfram, to the Wolfram Language. This language is used in Mathematica, Alpha Wolfram, and the Wolfram Programming Cloud. The well organized and neatly formatted book contains 47 chapters covering wide aspects of the Wolfram Language. Each chapter begins with hands-on examples that illustrate the commands covered by the chapter. These examples are followed by a vocabulary section (which summarizes the commands used by the examples), a set of exercises, a Q&A section to clarify the functions covered in the chapter, tech notes, and a section for additional exploration. The latter section points out to web links to find more information on the chapters topic.

The Wolfram Language supports mathematical computations, symbolic computation, functional programming, and rule-based programming. The book covers a wide aspects of programming that includes list manipulation, working with arrays, working with images, handling diagrams, working with text, displaying graphs, drawing maps, and so on. Dr. Wolfram has written this book to introduce the readers to programming with the Wolfram Language to a young and old audience. The hands-on approach (based on the Chinese idea of I do therefore I learn) is very effective. I enjoyed reading various chapters. The author wrote the book to present various topics in a sequential manner. The book is suitable for programming courses. It also contains a back section with the answers to all exercises.

I recommend the book for both novice and experienced programmers. The latter audience will appreciate the new and special programming features offered by the Wolfram Language. The language goes beyond other popular languages (like C++, JavaScript, Ruby, and Python, just to name a few) by supporting knowledge-based constructs.

My reaction to the book and the Wolfram Language parallels an interesting story about French mathematician Bernoulli. He had challenged the European mathematicians to solve a problem. After reading an anonymous solution hed received, he realized it was Newtons solution. Bernoulli commented that he recognized the lion by his paws!
748264
I just finished the HSI this morning and highly recommend this book, even to those who are opposed to the skeptical viewpoint.  One of the key insights of this book is how complicated the determination of historical global temperatures is and the potential pitfalls (and maybe impossibility) of reconstruction.  The McIntyre McKittrick (M&M) critique of the Mann 1998 hockey stick paper identified questionable statistical techniques used to generate the HS, followed by interminable stonewalling of data requests by Mann et al.  I deal with data in my work and I know how easy it is to make data mistakes, even with no political or professional issues.  Data and computer programs must be available along with papers in order that other scientists can confirm/replicate results - what were Mann et al hiding?  Careers and funding are highly dependent on the correct viewpoint on Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) and skeptics are definitely not welcome.  When you consider how Michael Mann's career and status are dependent on that 1998 paper and its successors, you understand how a scientist can be locked into a position.
4724212
After almost 40 years, Larry Stone has returned to his claim to fame, the theory of optimal search.  His 1975 book on optimal search (for fixed targets) won a Lanchester Prize, awarded by the Operations Research Society of America for outstanding contribution to operations research literature in the English language.  The work had great practical value, as well, as it led to the discovery of a lost H-bomb and several wrecked vessels.
Here he and his co-authors extend the earlier results to moving targets.  The book is a major contribution to the theory in this field.  It begins with a concise summary of the earlier results and then presents substantial new theory.  Warning: it is a daunting read even for those well-versed in the mathematics of optimization and applied probability.  I have made no serious effort to verify the correctness of the many mathematical proofs and doubt that many other readers will, either.
What many readers may and, if interested, should do is apply the results to actual searches.  The book provides algorithms, conveniently highlighted, for variety of important cases.  However, actual programming code implementing these algorithms is left to the reader.  It looks straightforward enough for experienced programmers to manage; again, I have not invested the effort to verify this claim. At the very least these highlighted practical sections provide a good overview of the results for the reader unable or disinclined to follow the advanced math.
Still unsolved is the problem of how to search for moving targets that are actively trying to avoid detection.  The book hints at some approaches, especially some using game theory, and refers to a couple of other books.  This area gives us something to look forward to from these authors.

In short, this is an outstanding contribution to the literature, both theory and practice, of this fascinating and valuable subject.  I highly recommend it for for advanced graduate students and as a resource for mathematically well-versed researchers and practitioners, and I urge others at least to leaf through it and glean the main ideas.
3353777
Unlike most other plasma books which get into very specific formulations very fast, this book is very readable.  I would say it is like the best chapters of the Francis Chen plasma book, with the added bonus of worked numerical examples. Single particle motion, fluid and kinetic theory are very clearly explained.  This book is a good balance between the intuitive explanations of Chen and the from first principles of the more obtuse book (Fundamentals of Plasma Physics) by Bittencourt.
62582
In this book, David Orrell provides a broad overview about the science of prediction as applied to weather (and climate science), health, and the economy (wealth). The book starts with an historical introduction which goes back to the Oracle of Delphi in Greece and then moves forward to the era of Francis Galton, the English polymath and father of eugenics who invented the so called bean machine, and the modern times. The book mentions that the famous normal (bell-like) distribution function was invented by the French mathematician de Moivre but does not explain why it is also known as Gaussian distribution function, after the German polymath Gauss. Also, some historical details about the fields of computer-based weather and genetic forecast are not treated in great detail (see the book Turing's Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe by George B. Dyson where more details can be found about the construction of MANIAC-o at IAS as masterminded by John von Neumann and the work on genetic evolution mechanisms by the Norwegian-Italian physicist Nils Aals Barricelli).
I appreciate the author's effort to unify the mathematical prediction of the above three fields although one should bear in mind that the physical and material aspects behind these three fields are completely different from each other. The weather is the result of the interaction of the atmosphere with the surface of our planet, which includes both land and oceans, and the vacuum of space along with the effect of Earth's rotation; health can be thought as the result of the combined effect of our genes and the interaction of each human bean with the surrounding environment (food, habits, pollution, etc); economy is the less physical of all because although the natural resources of each country should correspond to stronger economies, political and societal aspects are as well important and unpredictable. Hence, the mathematical models that are presently used in predicting the future of these fields have several commonalities but also very different characteristics.
The books end with a list of predictions for the year 2100 and with a summary about the worthiness of mathematical predictions in different fields of human endeavor. No matter how big computers we use, we cannot predict the future but we nevertheless can gain useful information about possible scenarios that may appear from the present. Overall, I give four stars to this book which represents a good overview of a complex and multidisciplinary field.

Hereafter a short list of errata:
a) page 113: "....a water molecule is typically represented as a stick-and-ball (?) model, with a hydrogen atom connected to two oxygen atoms" (meaning HO2?) -> "...a ball-and-stick model, with an oxygen atom connected to two hydrogen atoms" (meaning H2O);
b) page 183: "...shown in table 5.1 (on page 178)" -> should be page 184.
3682370
This book provides a valuable discussion of the strategies involved in developing MapReduce algorithms. Although I have done considerable parallel programming using MPI and OpenMP, I find MapReduce algorithms to be somewhat non-intuitive, and this book has helped me to overcome that barrier. I have revisited this book from time to time as I have gained more and more experience with MapReduce, and I am amazed to find that this book becomes more relevant each time that I revisit it.
1326623
+++++

The author, Robin Kerrod, an astronomer and accomplished astronomy writer, states in this book's preface the following:

"This book reveals the wonderful, mysterious, and awesome universe of ours...You don't have to be an astronomer to appreciate the...breathtakingly, hauntingly beautiful [colour] images [or pictures], which chronicle frozen moments in the life of the cosmos [or universe]--from the Martian dust storms to...planetary systems [other than our own]; from the birth pangs of young stars to the death throes of ancient ones; from [a very high rate of star formation] in neighbouring galaxies to catastrophic collisions in remote [galaxies]."

Thus, it is the visually stunning and dramatic images that grace all of the 190 pages of this book (published in October 2003) that make it so remarkable.  I counted approximately 300 images.  Note that of these, about 25 are non-space pictures.  My favourite non-space picture is a cutaway diagram of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) that shows its essential features. Each image or picture is accompanied by an excellent description of what's going on in the picture.

This book's title implies that all the space images have come from the HST (named after the foremost U.S. astronomer Edwin Hubble, 1889-1953).  Actually, as the picture credits section reveals, the majority of this book's space images do come from the HST but a small minority of them come from other sources such as Earth-based observatories, artificial satellites (for example, the COsmic Background Explorer or COBE), and space probes (such as Voyager 2).

This book is divided into six chapters that deal respectively with star birth, star death, galaxies, the expanding universe, solar systems, and our solar system's planets.  The appropriate pictures are put into each chapter.  For example, the first chapter on star birth contains about 35 pictures that deal with star birth.

This is not only a picture book!  This book also gives an overview of astronomy.  That is, each chapter is accompanied by text that is concise, comprehensive, and well-written.  I learned much from the combination of Kerrod's lucid text and the magnificant pictures.

This book also has a seventh section that is divided into two parts.  The first part explains details about telescopes in general while the second part discusses details about the HST in particular.  Both parts include informative pictures.

What significant space event occurred in 1957?  When was the HST put into orbit?  The answers to these and other similar questions can be found in the section called "Landmarks in Astronomy."  This section lists major astronomical landmarks that occurred between 585 BC and 2010 AD.

Need to find the definition of an astronomical/space/telescope term in a hurry?  Then use this book's "Glossary of Terms."  Such recent terms as "COSTAR", "proplyd", and "WIMP" are given excellent, concise definitions.

There are two obvious problems I found with this book.  First, the text on page 162 is duplicated on page 168.  Second, there are no references/notes for the book's text.  Some of this text information is very recent and very factual.  Thus, it seems to me that this information should be properly referenced.  All of the pictures, however, do give credit to their sources.

In conclusion, if you want to learn about the universe and see its glorious wonders, then don't go out and buy an expensive telescope or pay the very large amount to be a tourist on the next Space Shuttle flight.  Instead, get this relatively inexpensive book and have the universe at your fingertips!!!

+++++
2278035
This is just the right mix of detail yet not so technical as to push the reader over the edge of excess complexity. The book is a detective mystery and spirals around various topics regarding the structure and evolution of the universe returning again and again to the same issues but from ever more recent vantage points.  We gain a sense of what it must be like to be scientists pushing back the frontiers of knowledge yet not above the personal issues and passions that intrude upon the process of discovery.  The writing style is clear, clever, and fun while at the same time revealing deep levels of reality. Some long standing puzzles about the expansion of the universe were explained clearer here than I have seen anywhere else.  I did not want the book to end and rather wished for a magical way to keep tacking on new chapters as discoveries continue to be made.  It helps to have a general knowledge of physics and astronomy although the author does take pains to offer background information in as painless a manner as possible.  In fact the seamless incorporation of the basics is unusually effective.
3850674
Written by some of the masters of the italian school of mathematical-physics, this book is a survey of rigorous results on the Boltzmann equation and various topics surrounding it. Trying to organize  such an amount of material in a 350 pgs. book is an ambitious and  breathtaking task.  So the book is not an easy and systematic treatise, but  a compilation of diverse results in the area, which is very needed, as they  are scattered in a vast technical literature. Particularly welcome is a  complete exposition of Landford's result on the validity of the Boltzmann  equation, a (partial) realization of Boltzmann's dream and a real triumph  of mathematical-physics. On the other hand, the chapter on hydrodynamic  limits is extremely concise.
In any case, this book should be a standard  reference in the field. Indicated to mathematical-physicists and  mathematicians alike.
2818674
This work is provocative both in its astrobiological perspective and its challenge to assumption that the evolution of life is one simple process. That simple life might be common, and complex life very rare, is a new twist to the enigma of life's genesis.  The work highlights the puzzle of the Cambrian, now including, by hypothesis, an invisible period just before and leading up to it, which clarifies its passage into the realm naturalism from the presumptions of Creationists but without providing as yet the explanation, which is not so easily left at the doorstep of geological or external environmental explanation. The appearance of so many complex animal body plans so near the beginning of the rise planetary life as we know it is a reminder that we are missing something still in our theories of evolution. It is often insufficiently clear in accounts of this subject just how much internal organization there is in this high level beginnng period and how far the later period of the evolutionary processes to come are from matching this threshold of the coming beast.
1376412
I am a layman. I read popular science books occasionally to challenge myself. This is the first In Plain Sight book that I have read. The idea that everything moves at a constant rate in space and time is intriguing. The idea that present, past and future concurrently exist in block time is , for me, a new concept which I struggle to accept. I found the book fascinating. I highly recommend the book for those with a basic knowledge of math and a willingness to engage in intellectual exploration.
4272644
An extremely nostalgic read for a big HST fan and automotive buff who fondly remembers those seemingly kinder, simpler times.
4519344
I bought this book hoping to find a self-contained, semi-rigorous introduction to Fourier Analysis and its applications, and indeed I'm very pleased with the purchase. One aspect of the book's format that I enjoyed in a self-study setting is how it is partitioned into lessons (which are in turn divided into chapters). Indeed, it seemed that each lesson took me about 60-90 minutes to absorb, which is the average time most students (including myself) devote to one lesson.
Another aspect of the book I enjoyed was the fact that, on one hand the author took the time to introduce mathematically sophisticated ideas such as Lesbesgue measure and Hilbert spaces in order to make the proofs run more smoothly, but on the other there where more practical lessons on the fast Fourier transform, filters, and even wavelet analysis (last lesson). Such a blend of theory and practice in a relatively compact text seems quite rare.
Finally, I highly recommend this book for students of all levels; but especially to graduate students in mathematics, physics, and engineering.
1270014
Hmm.  The Christians look at the pretty images sent back by the HST, and what do they see?  A hypothetical, invisible, supernatural entity.  Do they see nothing more??

Y'know, there's a certain irony here.  Radio evangelists In the 1930s, especially in California and the West, ranted and raved against a diabolical device that was then being built.  It would make sinners of us all, leading us straight to the fiery pits of hell!  Faithful listeners by the hundreds wrote letters vowing to destroy this tool of the devil before it could be completed.  What was this infernal device?  It was one of HST's predecessors, the 200" telescope eventually place on Mount Palomar.

Do we dare hope that Christians are now more enlightened?
3964490
I liked this book.  I appreciated his approach to FFTs and DSP.  I found a few new ideas on how to analyze my data.  The CD had working spreadsheets that I found quite handy.
500138
An excellent text.  One of the clearer discussions within geophysical flows of the numerical techniques for problem solving.  The material on semi-implicit timestepping was particularly useful.  Previously, I've only found this in Canuto et al 2006 (Spectral Methods, Volumes 1 & 2), and this text by Durran is significantly more approachable.