Book Description
The authoritative guide to landslide investigation, evaluation, and mitigation design
Landslides in Practice combines clearly written descriptions and real-life case histories in an authoritative, practical guide to landslide investigation, evaluation, and mitigation design. It presents state-of-the-art investigative techniques and practical information on proven remediation techniques and technologies, including handy checklists for undertaking an initial field examination of a landslide.
Landslides in Practice describes the technical tools needed to study landslides-site investigations, soil shear strength properties, and slope stability analyses-and details forty-five methods for stabilizing landslides or preventing instability in soils from occurring. Most remediation techniques are keyed to the ENR Construction Cost Index to help readers determine a rough estimate of the costs associated with the various techniques.
To-the-point summaries explain presented techniques without confusing jargon, and dozens of succinct case histories integrated throughout the book serve as useful examples. In addition, twelve expanded case histories illustrate in depth many aspects of the landslide events and remediation strategies covered.
Complete with hundreds of informative illustrations, Landslides in Practice is a valuable resource for engineers, geologists, consulting firms, and construction companies, as well as landscape architects, land developers, and trial lawyers in the construction industry.
Customer Reviews:
fmr. Regional Director, FERC.......2006-10-23
This publication comprehensively covers both the art, and the science, of landslide causation, investigation, analysis, and remediation. It is the one book that a practitioner should have when dealing with landslide issues. The quality of the figures, the procedures for making preliminary cost estimates, and the detailed case histories substantially add to the value of the book.
Review by Practicing Geotechnical Engineer Seattle WA.......2006-05-26
Without question on of the most comprehensive texts about landslides to date. The text is full of practical and helpful case histories which are invaluable and set this book apart from the rest. Chapters on slope stability anaylses and dewatering alone are worth the price of admission. A must reference for all practicing geotechnical engineers.
Review by ex-Corps of Engineer Geologist.......2006-05-08
I can't imagine a clearer, more comprehensive or better organized treatment of this subject. This is a "must have" text for practicing engineering geologists and geotechnical engineers. It contains a wealth of information and many good case histories, and is far superior to anything else I've seen on this subject. I only wish it had been available earlier in my career.
Landslides in Practice.......2005-05-24
"Landslides in Practice" is the best practitioner's book on landslides I've seen. This excellent book is complete, logically arranged and written with an economy of words that makes the book highly useful as a practical reference. The full discussion of remedial measures - when and when not to use them, and cost estimating will be particularly useful in my work. I know I'll use this book often.
The Authoritative Source for Landslides.......2005-05-14
Landslides in Practice is an outstanding technical publication aimed at geotechnical engineers and geologists. I am very impressed with the format, layout and technical content. The book is well divided into three sections, with useful case histories in the third section. All figures are well presented and easy to follow. I am also impressed with the opportunity to estimate "ballpark" costs for various mitigation techniques. This textbook may become the "bible" on landslide design and mitigation. I will definitely keep it as my main resource for landslide/slope stability assignments.
Average customer rating:
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Plastic Pipe System: Failures, Investigation and Diagnosis
Mehdi Farshad
Manufacturer: Elsevier
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ASIN: 1856174964 |
Book Description
Industrial and domestic piping is increasingly made from various plastics and composites, and these materials withstand heavy use over long periods. They are, however, affected by environmental and other factors over time and can degrade, causing major problems within piping systems. Farshad's book deals with why plastic pipes and systems fail, and with how to investigate and diagnose such failures. Pipes may buckle, fracture, change in dimensions and colour, blister and delaminate, corrode through stress, be abraded and obstructed: all these cause problems and lead to loss of efficient operation of a system. The author's experience is backed up by a large data-base of results
* Wide target audience
* The only book covering the whole subject
* Unique approach based on long experience
Customer Reviews:
Not good.......2007-03-29
This book is full of spelling and grammar errors. There are ~15 examples of pipe failures (complete with photos and some background info) but the rest was not very educational. I suppose it depends on what you are looking for....but if you are looking for a book that provides extensive information on methods for failure analysis of plastic pipes, this is not the book for you.
Book Description
How did a fluke experiment in 1998, involving a used dental X-ray machine and a dubious sample of radioactive material, become the Pentagon’s pet weapons project? It had been rejected by one of the Pentagon’s most important advisory groups, but the Pentagon found an eccentric scientist who believed that a super “isomer” bomb could be built, and deliver the punch of a two-kiloton nuke packaged in a hand grenade. Ideologues at the Pentagon claimed that the Russians were in the process of building one of their own, and that the weapon was essential to the Pentagon’s arsenal.
Imaginary Weapons tells the story of the battle that ensued, pitting the nation’s leading nuclear physicists against the Pentagon’s top brass, and the military against nuclear arms control advocates, as funds and experiments for the “isomer weapon” miraculously reappeared even after the project had been shelved numerous times, even by Congress.
This book also illuminates the dangerous trend that the Bush administration continues to follow of putting politics before science. The bomb is imaginary, and the only explosion produced by the “isomer weapon” will leave a hole in the nation’s budget and a fallout of the nation’s best and brightest scientists.
Customer Reviews:
Hilarious, an atypical but not unique project account.......2007-06-16
This book is in some ways unfair in its ridicule of the Defense Department's establishment, DARPA in particular. Unfortunately, the history of the quest for a hafnium isomer weapon is far from the only example of an ill-judged DoD project that proved hard to kill. In my own experience of dealing with various parts of DoD and the rest of the defense community for 40+ years, projects that are demonstrably unsound, either for scientific and technical reasons or because they would not meet the operational needs of our military, are proposed with some regularity. Most such are quickly killed; some are not. In the case of "hafnium isomer triggering", I believe the serious physicists who understood how flaky the idea and the evidence was failed to use the most effective ways of getting DoD to drop its support. To kill a project that's not worthwhile, one must be "inside the loop", having "paid one's dues" over a period of many years, so that one is trusted by reasonably senior members of the defense community. And then, if the people one needs to persuade are not themselves technically knowledgeable, one must explain the reasons the project is unwise by exposition couched in terms that fit the professional backgrounds and focus of the people one is addressing; not in technical or scientific discourse, unless one's audience is skilled in that domain, but rather in terms of military operational unlikelihood or unsuitability. I recall a case in which the deciding factor was the emphatic assertion by a 4-star who had previously had the command for which a proposed very expensive system feature was intended that he had not needed and could not and would not have used it if it were available. The only role that outside advisers played in killing that one was finding that individual and getting him to examine the proposal; once he had done that, he was indignant enough to carry the message to the top of the Pentagon hierarchy.
However, despite the fact that the hafnium isomer research is atypical in the kength of time during which a dubious idea is funded, there are various other projects that have a similar history. Indeed, perhaps the most unfair aspect of the book lies in its failure to emphasize that the amount of money involved was too small to get the top brass stirred up one way or the other. DARPA, in particular, has done some outstanding things and some very flaky things, and it's difficult to get anyone senior in DoD to come down hard on DARPA. But this book is well worth reading, because it is one of the few published case histories of how hard it is to get some DoD quest stopped if there are even a few "true believers" inside DoD supporting it. More spectacular examples exist, but for those it would probably be impractical to put the whole story together and get it published. So I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who is asked to provide outside advice on any visionary defense proposal; despite the book's defects, it offers valuable insight. While reading it, though, keep in mind the various changes in technology or in operational doctrine that have been rejected by the conventional wisdom of the "establishment" over the years, that have subsequently proved to be sound and necessary. Taking this into consideration can provide some perspective and a degree of humility to one's scientific or technical advice. If something is unsound, by all means say so, but think about whether a real need exists, and if it does, whether there is a way of meeting the need more likely to succeed.
Axe to Grind.......2007-05-11
The author has some serious issues she needs to deal with. You don't actually learn anything by reading a book like this. Its about trying to get the reader to elicit an emotional response. Not recommended for American military enthusiasts.
just ok.......2007-01-10
the subject matter was interesting
but i found the writer's attempts to create imagery and storytelling to be a little contrived and kind of a distraction.
also, when i first cracked the book open i was expecting a wide variety of diabolical weapons research, instead i got one weapon (albeit diabolical).
Fascinating story but bad explanation of the physics .......2006-11-14
This book details the history of a project aimed at liberating the energy held in an excited energy level, an isomer, of the hafnium-178 nucleus. If you had a mass of these nuclei and could succeed in liberating the energy from them simultaneously, for example by starting a chain reaction, you would have a bomb whose power is comparable to that of an atomic bomb. Some of the obstacles in the way of making a hafnium bomb include lack of a good method for producing quantities of the hafnium-178 isomer, the difficulty of handling the material which is radioactive, and a dispute over whether the triggering of a chain reaction can be done at all. I did find the story fascinating.
Unfortunately, the explanations provided for the nuclear physics were often misleading or wrong. What can you make of the statement " ... anti-hydrogen--hydrogen with a positive charge." In fact, anti-hydrogen is the anti-matter equivalent of hydrogen. While hydrogen has a positively-charged proton and a negatively-charged electron, anti-hydrogen is composed of a negatively-charged antiproton and a positively-charged positron. There are more than a few instances in the book of the use of analogies or explanations that are not quite right. If you are a nuclear physicist, then you can tell what the author is trying to say. If you are not a physicist, then you are misinformed. The book would have been much better if the author had gotten one of the many nuclear physicists that she interviewed to proofread the book before publication.
For an excellent book in this area, I recommend "Plutonium" by Jeremy Bernstein.
Just awful!!.......2006-11-10
I was hoping this would be a run down of declassified weapons projects that didn't make the cut or lost funding or just didn't work. NOPE! Just a single silly idea that this author documented to death (literally) and then wrote into a book (sort of).
My biggest question at the end? Who the heck would think anyone would care!! Save your money. Just terrible!!
Book Description
This book is targeted to biologists with limited statistical background and to statisticians and computer scientists interested in being effective collaborators on multi-disciplinary DNA microarray projects. State-of-the-art analysis methods are presented with minimal mathematical notation and a focus on concepts. This book is unique because it is authored by statisticians at the National Cancer Institute who are actively involved in the application of microarray technology.
Many laboratories are not equipped to effectively design and analyze studies that take advantage of the promise of microarrays. Many of the software packages available to biologists were developed without involvement of statisticians experienced in such studies and contain tools that may not be optimal for particular applications. This book provides a sound preparation for designing microarray studies that have clear objectives, and for selecting analysis tools and strategies that provide clear and valid answers. The book offers an in depth understanding of the design and analysis of experiments utilizing microarrays and should benefit scientists regardless of what software packages they prefer. In order to provide all readers with hands on experience in data analysis, it includes an Appendix tutorial on the use of BRB-ArrayTools and step by step analyses of several major datasets using this software which is freely available from the National Cancer Institute for non-commercial use.
The authors are current or former members of the Biometric Research Branch at the National Cancer Institute. They have collaborated on major biomedical studies utilizing microarrays and in the development of statistical methodology for the design and analysis of microarray investigations. Dr. Simon, chief of the branch, is also the architect of BRB-ArrayTools.
Book Description
Throughout his architectural career, Peter Eisenman has been known primarily as a theorist and educator. Since the late 1980s, however, he has designed and built several major projects throughout the world. In this comprehensive monograph of the years 1988-1998, Eisenman the theoretician and Eisenman the practicing architect are presented in a series of projects and essays. Interspersed with the design projects are essays by Eisenman-on blurring, the interstitial, and undecidability-and by other writers and critics, including Frederic Jameson, John Rajchman, and K. Michael Hays.
Customer Reviews:
Disposable.......2006-03-11
Strictly for the pretentious student, 'Blurred Zones'is a veritable catalog of every half-baked, poorly considered jargonisticly-driven notion that made so much of 1990's architecture the wrong-headed foolishness it was. Eisenman's uber-contrived text attempts to blur only the paucity of sophisticated architectural concepts in this disposable volume. Instead, he serves up the sort of slick, but empty computer graphics that belong in comuter games but should not be confused with architecture.
Another Perspective.......2005-03-30
As a student of architecture, I find both the visual and textual contents of this book to be extremely helpful and fascinating on multiple levels. Understandably so, there is a general consensus that Eisenman's architectural prose, as well as his form, is nothing more than illogical fantasy which has no relationship to reality and fails to become anything more than self indulgence, when in fact it can be much more than that to those with an open mind. First, the manner in which his projects are graphically presented is in my opinion of the highest available quality, and even as they may be criticised, they are in line with the title itself, in that it this monogram does not seek to directly convey to a reader the entirety of each project, but rather, the sense of the project in order to allow each individual to divulge from it something that becomes stricly personal. In doing so, the book allows for any student looking to expand his or her basis of knowledge, and to then make a choice on how to apply that information. It is perfectly fair to critique Eisenman, yet unfortunately, many of the previous reviews are quick in doing so, and do not consider the possiblity of making revisions to the theory presented within the book, which could ideally lead to a newer and better form of architecture. If your concern is soley on whether or not you will be receiving your money's worth, I strongly assert that you will not be disappointed.
So Silly It Must Be Satire.......2004-05-18
Imagine a round-table discussion populated by self-important academics who have spent no more than 10 or 15 minutes dabbling in Deleuze, Foucault, Derrida and several of the other discredited French "philosophers" who were popular in the 1990's. Add to the mix a dilettante's crude conception of significant architectural issues and an anarchists's adolescent satisfaction with upsetting the world that they feel so alienated by, - and you get some idea where Blurred Zones is heading. This book is no more than the flatulent commentary of people who like to hear the sound of their own voices. . A casual glance at almost any paragraph will confirm that it contains more ridiculousness than many sit-coms on TV. It should be noted that one of the authors (Cynthia Davidson) happens to be Eisenman's wife - so you can forget about any impartiality on that front. And, conveniently they all turn a blind eye to the building failures that typify many of Eisenman's completed works. (We are "theorists", remember - not real Architects. We are about diagrams, not buildings.) It is baffling and amusing to think that these people take themselves so seriously. Honestly, I found it funny to read selections in this book. It might more profitably be listed under `Humor' or `Satire'. Certainly it has no place on an architectural collection.
Vapid and More Vapid.......2004-05-08
I am continually surprised by the inane writing that architects get away with. As a graduate student (philosophy major) switching to architecture, I have to read some of this rubbish for my course. Wake Up! Look arounf you. This is not theory or investigation. It is the sort of mindless crap that makes our cities so unlivable. For all his writing about disjunction, disturbing and transgression, I notice Eisenman lives in a nice homey traditional apartment building on 10th Street. Who is he kidding? YOU, - (if you willingly switch off your brain and buy into this balderdash.) Get sense. Read Louis Kahn, or anyone who genuinely understands architecture and people. This is all garbage.
Predictable Blather.......2004-04-28
From the pretentious title to the closing endpaper this book is jammed with the now hackneyed archi-speak that Eisenman et al impress themselves with. But mostly its the same old abstract blather. Whatever happened to the good-old days when young architects sought to be socially and artistically responsible, and were willing to learn how to craft a building through an understanding of construction and detail? Pied Piper Eisenman (via Benjamin and the other gooks) shows there is another, cruder, more ignorant path that can be taken much more easily. Take it at your peril.
Book Description
Boeing's 737 is indisputably the most popular and arguably the safest commercial airliner in the world. But the plane had a lethal flaw, and only after several disastrous crashes and years of painstaking investigation was the mystery of its rudder failure solved. This book tells the story of how engineers and scientists finally uncovered the defect that had been engineered into the plane.
Customer Reviews:
One of the best books on air crash investigation.......2005-09-06
The 737's rudder design defect brought to the fore.
This book is a perfect combination of story telling and technical analysis. It's thoroughly researched, technical information is accurate, the narrative is comprehensive as well as comprehensible. I do have to admit the point made about the lack of diagrams is valid. I had to look elsewhere for illustrations to guide me along the way. Other than that though, Flight 427 is one of the best books on air crash investigation around. Don't miss it if you are even remotely interested in aviation.
Excellent Account Of The 737 Rudder Accidents And Issues.......2005-08-23
"Flight 427" is a book that Gerry Byrne can be rightfully proud of. I have been interested in this subject for many years now both as an airline pilot (I flew the 737 for almost two years, and must in all candor say that it was my least favorite of the nine different airliner types that I have flown; In all fairness to Boeing, many of my colleagues seem to really enjoy flying the 737, but after my personal experience with the plane, I still can't understand why) and a student (I wrote my Master's thesis on a quantitative systems safety comparison of 737 and A-320 primary flight control systems.) Of the two books on the market which focus on USAir flight 427 (the other, by Bill Adair, is also excellent) I give this one the slight edge for the average reader or the person most interested in how the NTSB "Party System" functions at a major aviation accident.
Byrne carefully weaves the story of flight 427 in with the earlier United 585 accident (same cause) and the later Eastwind 517 incident (also the same cause) skillfully and with generally quite good technical accuracy (there are a couple of very minor technical errors, but they are inconsequential and would not be noticed by most people.) What I really appreciate about the book is Byrne's breadth of sources in reporting on not only well known and understood matters, but also on very obscure, but important background information like all the early Frontier 737 rudder malfunctions, which few are familiar with.
The real story here is of the frustrating experience of investigating such a complex and politically charged investigation. There is no question that Boeing comes off looking bad by the end of the book, and I have to admit, deservedly so.
The only weakness in the book is the total lack of illustrations. This is a topic that could really use illustrations, particularly when Byrne starts discussing things like the interior functions of the dual-concentric servo valve, which was ultimately the problem here.
This is a great book, and I highly recommend it.
Clear and concise account.......2004-04-27
The author Gerry Byrne ought to be proud of this book. The book starts off with the crash of United flight 585 in Colorado Springs, another Boeing 737 aircraft that mysteriously flipped over and crashed while trying to land. The investigation of the United accident opened the door to a possible design problem with the rudder on the 737 airplane. The book then covers the US Air flight 427 accident that crashed in a way very similar to United 585. I couldn't put this book down. Even though this book is non-fiction and at times very technical it is written in a way that is comfortable to read and you really understand the detail in context with what is very complex story. There is one point in the book where Gerry describes a rudder test conducted at Boeing on a rainy night where an engineer finally is able to reproduce a rudder reversal problem which was suspected by the NTSB for a long time. In context with the story this was a point where you really breath a sigh of releif... But even than the story the investigation takes more unsuspected turns. Great book.
Enjoyable but technical.......2003-06-10
I would have preferred to have had some pictures/diagrams to help explain the more detailed technical aspects of the book. However overall an enjoyable and interesting book.
Good, but lacking.......2003-01-01
I agree with the other reviews of this book in that the author does a great job of keeping you interested and making it entertaining. However, I feel that book would have been greatly enhanced with the addition of some technical drawings or illustrations. The descriptions get somewhat complicated at times, and a diagram or two would ensure clear understanding. If you aren't interested in the details, then as it is written should be fine, but if you want to understand completly, diagrams are required. I also think the text jumps around quite a bit in time, not following a strictly linear timeline. While this makes for easier reading in following specific tangents and topics, it clouds the overall understanding of what is going on... I have read many crash investigation books, and this one does a credible job of mixing storytelling with technical explanations.
Book Description
* Incident response and forensic investigation are the processes of detecting attacks and properly extracting evidence to report the crime and conduct audits to prevent future attacks
* This much-needed reference covers the methodologies for incident response and computer forensics, Federal Computer Crime law information and evidence requirements, legal issues, and working with law enforcement
* Details how to detect, collect, and eradicate breaches in e-mail and malicious code
* CD-ROM is packed with useful tools that help capture and protect forensic data; search volumes, drives, and servers for evidence; and rebuild systems quickly after evidence has been obtained
Customer Reviews:
Covers the Basics.......2005-12-08
This book provides a good introduction to computer forensics and covers most of the necessary basic information. Do not expect to read this book (or any of the other computer forensic books available) and be able to perform any sort of in-depth forensic analysis. It's good information for Sys Admins or tech-savvy home users. Those needing professional-level information for their job (computer security, law enforcement, etc) should look to 5-6 day courses that provide in-depth, hands-on training.
Again, as an introductory text on computer forensics, the book is good. Chapter 7 (Procedured for Collecting and Preserving Evidence) could use a little beefing-up with respect to boot disks. It is admirable that the author shows how to create Windows and Linux boot disks, but they don't provide any other benefit (no tools, etc). He should have mentioned freeware liveCDs for both Windows and Linux, such as the "Ultimate Boot CD for Windows" and "Helix" for Linux (search the web). Not only are they bootable media, they have tools useful for forensic analysis.
Readable and relevant - but US-centric.......2004-03-26
The introduction describes this book as a "complete introductory course in basic computer forensics and incident response" and that is indeed the case. It begins with an overview of computer forensics and incident response in Chapter 1 and progresses to legal considerations, obtaining and preserving digital evidence, system internals (mostly Windows although Unix is also discussed) and ends with analysis of real-world attacks and possible defences in Chapter 12. Press references and citations are used to give the big picture. All in all this is a book which I would recommend with two "buts": first, the author is writing from a US perspective for a US reader, presenting and discussing US-specific legislation and legal issues; while this would be of direct interest to our US-based brethren it is of no much use to anyone else. Second, platform-dependent coverage is mostly Windows, and although Linux/Unix get mentioned throughout the book the coverage of UNIX internals and forensics is not on par with Windows counterparts. Having said this, if you are in the US and are using Windows, do get this book - it is a readable and straight introduction to a complex and interesting field which becomes more and more important.
Fair introductory text, could be much better........2004-01-24
The author covers different aspects of incident response, but fails to go deeper in the matter.
The author talks briefly about types of attacks, briefly about forensics tools, and briefly about the incident response procedures. Such shallow coverage of the topics makes for a quite dissappointing read.
On the other hand he offers the readers complete text of USA Patriot Act 2001 - with little discussion of its implications, privacy concerns and its impact on the organizational security! Readers also get treated to full texts of Janet Renot(sp?) speeches - also with little explanation. Seems he tried to increase the word count of the book.
Forensics tools are mentioned with instructions to run them starting as "Step 1:Click the Start menu button". Every tool has a half a page description on how to start it with a screenshot taking up the rest of the page.
Forensics techniques are described, but the author presents this quite technical material in the abstract, easy-to-read form that takes away all the usefullness of it - reads like a summary.
Incident response chapters present the reader with the common sense material. Might be useful to get an idea of what is involved in developing a incident response process, but it's hard to find it practical - it's simply too general.
A fair introductory book, could be much better.
Timely and worthwhile!.......2004-01-24
This book gives the reader a solid grounding in a difficult field. Since forensics and response are an area where you're up against a creative enemy, it's impossible to give the reader a cookbook approach. Schweitzer gives the reader the tools and framework necessary to begin tackling this very difficult problem. I'm really happy to see this book available on the market, since the problem it addresses is one that's getting worse all the time and shows no sign of getting better soon.
Good job, Doug!
mjr.
Right on the button.......2004-01-19
A well considered and well structured work for the IT professional.
The book is fast paced and wisely does not get dragged down with too much detail and 'how to' guides. It provided the knowledge and check lists to enable the reader to react appropriatly to an IT emergency or situation where a forensic approach is required.
It's clear structure will enable me to use the book as a reference work in the future.
The included CDROM was useful although in the future a PDF guide of each file would have been handy reference. It would have also been nice to have seen the free tools mentioned in the book included on the disk.
Overall an excellent read I will look out for Douglas Schweitzer books again.
Book Description
Elizabeth Gaffney’s magnificent, Dickensian Metropolis captures the splendor and violence of America’s greatest city in the years after the Civil War, as young immigrants climb out of urban chaos and into the American dream.
On a freezing night in the middle of winter, Gaffney’s nameless hero is suddenly awakened by a fire in P. T. Barnum’s stable, where he works and sleeps, and soon finds himself at the center of a citywide arson investigation.
Determined to clear his name and realize the dreams that inspired his hazardous voyage across the Atlantic, he will change his identity many times, find himself mixed up with one of the city’s toughest and most enterprising gangs, and fall in love with a smart, headstrong, and beautiful young woman. Buffeted by the forces of fate, hate, luck, and passion, our hero struggles to build a life–just to stay alive–in a country that at first held so much promise for him.
Epic in sweep, Metropolis follows our hero from his arrival in New York harbor through his experiences in Barnum’s circus, the criminal underground, and the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, and on to a life in Brooklyn that is at once unique and poignantly emblematic of the American experience. In a novel that is wonderfully written, rich in suspense, vivid historical detail, breathtakingly paced, Elizabeth Gaffney captures the wonder and magic of a rambunctious city in a time of change. Metropolis marks a superb fiction debut.
Download Description
“Gaffney has engineered a thrilling Brooklyn Bridge of a novel, at once old-fashioned and utterly modern, grand and charming, elegant and massive, imposing and delightful, carrying us in inimitable style across the rich, rank waters of New York City’s history.”
–MICHAEL CHABON, author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
“Elizabeth Gaffney’s Metropolis is vibrant, richly detailed, and compellingly plotted. The territory of her late-nineteenth-century underworld resembles that of Herbert Asbury’s The Gangs of New York or Frederick Busch’s The Night Inspector–but the sensibility is all her own, and her characters are unforgettable.”
–
Andrea Barrett, author of Ship Fever
“Trust the excellent Elizabeth Gaffney-–in her debut novel, no less–to use the best of both history and her own considerable powers of creation to construct this compelling tale of a young immigrant’s journey through the chaotic underbelly of post—Civil War New York. The star of Gaffney’s dazzling show may be male, but the true heroes are the crafty, clever, and resilient female cast members who, with their own nineteenth-century brand of girl-gang feminism, help to reinvent the world.”
–
Helen Schulman, author of P.S. and The Revisionist
“What an absorbing experience to visit Elizabeth Gaffney’s imagination while it shakes, shimmers, and sizzles with extraordinary storytelling against the backdrop of history.”
–
Anna Deavere Smith
“A towering work of brilliant imagination, as exquisitely written as it is intricately constructed. Metropolis, with all its brawn and brains and heart, will no doubt find its way into the skyline of the greatest of the great New York City classics.”
–
David Grand, author of The Disappearing Body
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews:
Some great touches of old New York but............2006-06-11
This book is well-researched and, for the most part, well-done. I've lived in NYC all my life and know a fair bit about the history of this city and still there were touches in here that were unknown to me. I found them fascinating and I think you will too. The author put a ton of work into getting it right and you've got to hand it to her for that. The problem comes with the plot. The story is soooo familiar and, if you don't know the loser/hero gets the girl -- the tough and smart but downtrodden gang mol -- then you're just not thinking. There are plot lapses toward the end of the book. The villain seems to disappear just when he should have been plunging foward and shows up conveniently in time to be killed -- another plot point you could have seen coming the first time he makes our poor hero look bad. Still, I got involved with the story to a degree; I just knew where it was headed. Now, if you want to read a book like this that still has the power to awe and excite, read the classic -- "Time and Again" by Jack Finney -- still the best old NYC book after more than 20 years or is it 30? Now, that's a great book and Ms. Gaffney can't compete.
Slogged through it.......2006-05-08
For a debut novel, this is not bad, but not worth reading again or buying. The character development was good, but the story line was questionable. The Whyos and Why Not gang members were not realistic and I agree with another reviewer that I felt it was more like West Side Story than true gang membership. The gang members are chosen and inducted because they have perfect pitch and can carry on complex sounds and techniques used by ventriloquists. While, I credit the author with a creative idea, her style was not able to convey the concept well. I liked the characters in the story, but the pace was very slow. I kept reading hoping it would get better, but when I finished it, I wished that I had stopped earlier.
Pick a genre and go for it... .......2006-04-18
Since Michael Chabon endorsed this book and the author had won a place at Yaddo to write parts of it, I thought that I was in for a treat of a read, and yay! it was 450 pages of reading.
Well, yes and no. The book has a great premise -- ganglife and a new immigrant's experiences in 1880s New York -- but it waffles between a full-fledged historical novel (like Edward Rutherfurd's works) and the second draft of a literary work. If the author had taken on one of the genres, and fully explored that rather than trying to blend the two, perhaps this would have been a more satisfying read for me. It's definitely "readable" but doesn't live up to the accolades on the jacket.
But because I saw some moments of good storytelling and a good handle on the dramatic pace, I have hope the author's next work will be much improved over this piece.
Well written, fluid novel of old NY.......2006-03-30
In its essence, Metropolis is a love story between a German immigrant in NYC in the late 1800's and the teenage wife of the Irish gang leader.
Though earnest, honest, and hard-working, Harris is on the run from the law for a crime he didn't commit. The Irish gang takes him to use for their own nefarious purposes, and assigns Beatrice the job of turning him into a credible Irishman to avoid the police and other gangs.
The story is minutely researched, and brings in real people from the era, including the main character himself, mentioned in David McCullough's "The Great Bridge" as a worker who fell off the Brooklyn Bridge during construction and lived. The historical detail is used well, adding a strong sense of an almost magical place of heroic bridges overhead, secret sewer tunnels below, an era of vicious but honorable gangs counterbalancing the venality of the police and municipal adminstration. But Gaffeny never gets bogged down in these details, using them only to complement the intertwined stories of Harris and Beatrice.
The novel reminded me of "A Winter's Tale" by Mark Helprin, about a thief and set during the same period, and obviously pulls extensive detail from "The Gangs of NY."
Overall, very enjoyable to read and highly recommended.
Opportunity and opportunism abound.......2006-03-23
I enjoyed this novel. It is well-written, mixes history and possibility in a style broadly similar to The Crimson Petal, and the White.
The story is as much about New York as it is about the characters who glide, stride or bustle across the pages.
We see the best, and the worst, of the people and the metropolis they inhabit. Opportunities are seized, opportunism abounds.
We leave the main characters poised on the brink of a hopeful and successful future. I wanted more.
Average customer rating:
- Turing's neural networks and genetical search
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Turing's Connectionism: An Investigation of Neural Network Architectures
Christof Teuscher
Manufacturer: Springer
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1852334754 |
Book Description
Turing's connectionism provides a detailed and in-depth analysis of Turing's almost forgotten ideas on connectionist machines. In a little known paper entitled "Intelligent Machinery", Turing already investigated connectionist models as early as 1948. Unfortunately, his work was dismissed by his employer as a "schoolboy essay" and went unpublished until 1968, 14 years after his death.
In this book, Christof Teuscher analyzes all aspects of Turing's "unorganized machines". Turing himself also proposed a sort of genetic algorithm to train the networks. This idea has been resumed by the author and genetic algorithms are used to build and train Turing's unorganized machines. Teuscher's work starts from Turing's initial ideas, but importantly goes beyond them. Many new kinds of machines and new aspects are considered, e.g., hardware implementation, analysis of the complex dynamics of the networks, hypercomputation, and learning algorithms.
Customer Reviews:
Turing's neural networks and genetical search.......2002-05-03
A programmable digital computer, based on Alan Turing's design, ran its first program in 1950 at the National Physical Laboratory, London. Even today, every computer in the world remains computationally equivalent to a Turing Machine. It is little known however, that Turing also investigated neural network architectures as early as 1948, and before the term genetic algorithm was coined, proposed configuring his networks with a "genetical search". In this book Teuscher presents the most extensive exploration of Turing's neural networks available. The book contains over 100 diagrams, detailed examinations of the logical behaviour of Turing's networks, experiments into their emergent properties and extensions of Turing's ideas based on recent findings. An understanding of Turing's networks allows insight into a number of modern research areas such as Kauffman's work on the principles of self-organisation, the boundaries of computability, and even the real neural networks of living things (Turing claimed that his neural networks were probably the simplest possible model of the human cortex). Because the discussion in the book starts with Turing's early networks and progresses through to current research, it can also be read as an accessible overview of the history of the field. In addition, the book makes it clear that there are many interesting research questions still to be answered in this area. As such, this book will be of interest to historians of computer science and modern researchers alike.
Book Description
There is a marrying of ideas, process, and action in Raku that creates some of the most exciting forms of contemporary clay art. Raku: Investigations into Fire is a comprehensive study of this popular ceramic process. Its history is traced from its earliest beginnings in Japanese ritual to current preoccupations dealing with the relationship of clay, artist, and fire. The history of Raku provides a framework for understanding the most recent developments in materials and technology, while an analysis of design illuminates the ways in which new ideas are developed. There is also an extensive examination of the methods of generating the rich and seductive surfaces, as well as the most recent innovations in technology and process-all beautifully illustrated with 200 fine color photographs. This is an ideal book for both the beginner and the experienced practitioner.
Customer Reviews:
A "Must have" book.......2000-05-10
This book is well written by someone who obviously know their subject well. Easy to read and well illustrated. The book takes the reader on a journey from the beginng of the Raku process in Japan right through to the modern adaptions of the western world. The many examples shown are by some well known and some not so well known exponents of this exciting method of firing ceramics. The author gives recipes and showns some results of different ways of reduction.
The fantastic colour photographs alone are worth the price of the book. I would recommend this to every teacher of ceramics and a must have for every student.
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