This text is a good introduction to the logic of how to program in SAS to do data manipulation as preparation for statistical analysis with the SAS/STAT system.

It begins with a cursory introduction to SAS, emphasizing the need to properly plan your data processing and analysis, the logic of debugging, etc. From there the following chapters cover data step data manipulation and processing, functions and the addition of new variables to a dataset using functions, and a good treatment of the IF-THEN-ELSE statements including loop counters. The following chapters cover branching, DO loops, and data manipulation with arrays. The treatment of DO loops and arrays in particular is especially good; very helpful in teaching one the logic of how they work.

This book, however, is NOT one to get if you are looking for examples of SAS programs. Each chapter makes use of only one or two programs, each written with the sole purpose of illustrating how particular commands work and what they produce. You won't find any examples of how to program an ANOVA or a T-test here, or other examples of SAS/STAT programs.

Also, you should have some background in SAS already, namely you should know how to write a basic data step, how to write a basic PROC step, and the order hierarchy of commands in the steps. This book is NOT a basic introduction to SAS.

For an exceptional introduction to SAS for green newbies, get Hatcher and Stepanski's book (ISBN 1-55544-634-5) and for examples, you should look to Cody and Smith (ISBN 0-13-743642-4).

Received my book in excellent condition and in a very timely manner! Thanks so much!

Malcolm Walter has written a fascinating guide to where we should look for current or past life on Mars. As a non-scientist I was not quite sure what to expect in buying this book, but what I found was a thoughtful discussion of how one scientist would explore the red planet for signs of life. Walter gives a short, understandable review of the scientific discoveries to date from the past NASA missions as a prelude to what to expect in the future. However, his background is in palaeobiology on Earth, which I learned is the study of fossilied life. Having absolutely no knowledge of this field myself, I sometimes felt a little lost in his technical discussions and wasn't always sure that I wanted to know as much as he told me about microbe fossils on Earth. Nevertheless, the thrust of his arguments and points he made were all clear. The heart of his case is that there is a lot we can learn from palaeobiology on Earth that should inform how we search for life, which may very well only be fossilized former life, on Mars. The importance future extensive scientific exploration for signs of past or present life on Mars is also well made. Overall, this short book (170 pages including the index) is worth the the time, and for a layman the effort, for anyone who has even a passing interest in this subject.

This book is a little like "Here be Dragons," (Koerner, LeVay, Oxford University Press, 2000) and "Rare Earth," (Ward, Brownlee, Copernicus, 2000) except that it is more focused and specific than the others. While Koerner, LeVay, Ward, and Brownlee consider the possibility that life exists outside the solar system, Walter limits the scope of his book to the question of whether microbes exist, or once existed, on Mars.

Life outside of earth has never been unambiguously observed and verified. Consequently, discussions about the possibility of life beyond earth inevitably begin with thoughts about how life originated here. There seems to be an emerging sense that life is the result of a universe that is naturally self-organizing (Stuart Kauffman is in this camp. See his book "At Home in the Universe, Oxford University Press, 1995). According to this point of view, life is all but certain to arise on any planet having the basic chemicals and physical conditions found on earth 4 billion years ago. Given this hypothesis - that life arises quickly and naturally in the proper environment - it's natural to ask if any other planets in the solar system have (or had) the necessary ingredients. If they did, we should look to see if life evolved there. Since there is growing evidence that Mars had a distant past with some of these conditions, it seems more and more important that we look for life on Mars. Finding evidence of life there would buttress the concept that life readily evolves given the proper environment. Obviously, if that's the case, it holds enormous consequences for modern science.

Walter has a nice chapter on the tree of life, and describes recent information showing that "all the lowest branches of the tree are occupied by hyperthermophiles." The discovery that life exists on earth under extreme conditions (like those of deep-sea thermal vents) has increased the hope among scientists that it might also have evolved and flourished on Mars many thousands of millions of years ago. He also shows how genetic transfer between species happens today, and was probably common among our earliest ancestors, so that the whole concept of a "tree of life" becomes somewhat tangled during the earliest stages of the evolution of life. Instead of a tree, the topology looks more like a web, with the roots of the tree (consisting of Bacteria, Eucarya, and Archaea) rising out of this web.

The expectation of finding evidence of life on Mars depends on the type of environment that Mars supported in the distant past, and the circumstances under which life arose on earth. It also depends on how easy it is to ascertain the evidence of fossilized ancient microbial life. It turns out that identifying evidence of microbes in very old rocks is a pretty hard thing to do. To illustrate this, Walter describes the difficulty of identifying stromatolites in ancient rocks. This was new information for me, and a real insight into the nuts and bolts of making these sorts of identifications. I'd thought that stromatolites were easy to identify, but in the very oldest rocks, they're not. When identifying stromatolites in rocks 3000 million years old, there can be (and often is) a great deal of controversy regarding the conclusion. Walter's point in making this so clear is that stromatolites are large colonies of microbes, yet even they are not unambiguously identified in the oldest rocks. The problem of identifying evidence for individual microbes in rocks 3000 to 3500 million years old is even tougher. The point being that even with Martian rocks in our hands, it's not going to be easy to affirmatively state whether there is evidence of ancient life on Mars.

To drill the point home, Walter points to the fact that we do have chunks of Martian rocks on hand, in the form of bits and pieces that have been blasted off the Martian surface by meteorite impacts. Walter describes in detail the scientific examination of some of these rocks, and one, in particular, identified as ALH84001. This meteorite made world news when a team of scientists reported finding evidence of ancient microbes buried inside it. Walter describes the initial reports, the objections, and the eventual state of limbo in which these conclusions came to rest. This helps set the tone for expectations regarding the difficulty against which such analysis will proceed even when we manage to return samples from the Martian surface using spacecraft.

In describing how scientists make conclusion about the presence of microbes in ancient rocks, Walter does a real service by illustrating the importance of convergent evidence. Identifying ancient microbes involves more than one type of observation. It involves many types of converging data, including visible observations of deposits in rocks, the types of rocks involved, and things like carbon isotope ratios (not to be confused with carbon 14, which decays far to quickly for analysis in 3000-million-year-old rocks). Along these lines, I noticed a recent article in Photonics Spectra (May 2001) describing the use of Raman imaging to identify microfossils - another tool, in the search for the ancient life on earth, and possibly on Mars.

The book ends with some very informative discussions about proposals for future landing sites on Mars, for sample analysis and/or return.

This is a very informative book, with useful insights into the way science works, complete with several pages of color plates, a useable index, and short list of further reading material. If you are interested in what NASA does, and how the scientific search for life on Mars is (and will be) carried out, I think you will like it. I certainly did.

The Secret History of the Mongols is one of the most important primary source for study of Mongol history and Chingis Khan. Also, this book is very impressive poet like Homor's great works. I know Francis Woodman Cleaves has already translated it into English. He is great master of Mongol history, however, his "King James English" is terrible, especially foreigners like me. Paul Khan's work overcomes this big problem. The easy and spoken English let everyone enjoy it. Now, read it, enjoy it, and feel the "World Conqueror"

The Secret History is a record of the Mongolian Royal families, which is thought to have been written during the thirteenth century. Paul Kahn has kept the original prose format in his translation, which I feel makes this the only version to own. It begins with the creation myth of the wolf and deer from which the Mongolian people (in legend) are descended from; throught he birth of Temujin, and ending with the ascention to the throne of Ogedai Khan. I highly recommend this to those who are looking for primary sources to add to their Asian history collections.

Full of history and mythology, I especially liked the section on archaeoastronomy. For a more detailed look at this subject, take a look at the books by A.F. Aveni.

The authors do seem to be supporters of the pseudoscience astrology, although they never make a case for it in this book.
Astrology is supposedly based on the movements of the heavens, but I have never met an astrologer who even begun to understand Kepler's laws or Einstien's relativity equations, all which describe the movements of the heavens.

Two technical errors in the book: They say (p72) that Pluto is bigger than Mercury. No, Mercury is over twice the size of Pluto.
P. 43 says there were 3 kings in the Christmas story - a common misconception. Technically, it doesn't say how many, which is why some traditions hold many more.

A note on p 105: They mention the "unknown God" that Paul refers to in Acts. They are apparently unware of the historical records which suggest this monument to the unknown god was dedicated to the God of Christianity years before Paul arrived after this God performed miracles for people in the area. An interesting look into biblical authencity that the author's overlooked.

A fine generalist introduction to the metaphors of the sky. Generalist because it is concerned with more than western astrological symbols. At this stage in human history, with our emerging global viewpoint & understanding of the Earth itself as a living being, astrologers, too, must allow their knowledge to expand & deepen. We are slowly passing out of the Piscean Age & into Aquarius, & that means irresistable changes. Those with pagan or wiccan inclinations need a less Eurocentric comprehension of sky spirituality. The Secret Language of Stars and Planets, while rooted in the Western Zodiac, takes a multicultural path beyond those borders. So all of the Planets are provided with some identifications from Chinese, Egyptian, Incan, Indian & Pre-Columbian cultures, though not in especially great detail. Still, the artwork is lovely (if a bit less so than Dr. Fontana's "The Secret Language of Symbols") & the information is accurate.

The really outstanding part of this book is the section on Sacred Alignments. The astronomical designs and spiritual purposes of twenty seven ancient sites are explored. In addition to the obvious ones like The Great Pyramid, Stonehenge & Avebury, the book explains the layouts of such far flung power centers as Hashihaka in Japan, Vijayanagara in India, the Cahokia mound complex in Illinois, the Chaco Canyon "Ancient Ones" area in the Four Corners region, and several South American sites including Machu Picchu. Just enough to stimulate one's curiousity for more learning.

These wise, ancient peoples experienced the world in ways that are difficult for us to know. But we must try. To do so, we have to get past our limited geo-political views. Gaia deserves no less. The sky belongs to no one. The sky belongs to everyone.

Bob Rixon

Make no mistake, Paul Taylor is a gifted author and a talented journalist.

This is the story of Paul Taylor the Washington Post reporter that broke the story of Gary Hart and Donna Rice and ended Hart's chances at being President in 1988. More importantly, Taylor asked "the question" that changed the way media cover politicians.

"Did you commit adultery?" There it is. Simple by today's standards of DNA dresses and DWI Presidents.

By understand what happened to Hart, you can see the Clinton circus coming a mile away. Taylor gives honest account of one of the first political/media "feeding frenzies."

If you believe that Taylor didn't understand the watershed moment in politics he was creating when he asked Hart "the question" (and I'm not sure I buy it) than you can really get into Taylor's first hand account of the campaign, the challenge, the chase and the media explosion that followed.

The reason I gave it four stars and not five, is that Taylor gets too preachy in the end by using his experience with the demise of Hart to tell us what is wrong with Presidential politics and how we need to fix it.

The fact that he is right has nothing to do with it. He is right, but that's not why I bought the book.

In short: good writing, good story, good reference point to understand the media/presidential politics relationship. Worth the time to read but not going to change history as Taylor clearly hoped it would.

Paul Taylor is the reporter who used the 'A word' to derail Gary Hart's floundering campaign in 1988. It's rare that a reporter has as much influence over the nomination process, and the book provides a unique insight into the campaign from someone who, however briefly, had a very real effect on the election. At first it might seem that Taylor's emphasis on his own actions smack of delusions of grandeur, but he is really out to examine the roll of the press in a campaign, and only emphasizes his role early on because of his importance in bringing down Hart. The book is not a nuts and bolts exploration of the trench warfare of the election in the tradition of Witcover and Germond, but rather a serious of snapshots of important moments in the campaign, well detailed and critically examined. As such it is not the best source for a detailed examination of the whole campaign but more a superb companion piece for such books. It also is an excellent summery for those who want a more general overview of the campaign. Highly recommended.

A little gem of a book, the story involves a young man's adventures into the decadent underbelly of turn-of-the-century Prague -- before WWI, back when the city was an ethnic mix of Czechs, Germans and Jews, when it was the home of Franz Kafka and Max Brod. The main character, Severin, is wonderfully portrayed, but just as deftly drawn is the city. If you've never been to this East European capital, as you read Lepin's moody prose, you'll feel as if you're walking Prague's brooding, mazelike streets, maybe even getting lost in them. There are a few passages where the translation is a little rough, but these infrequent lapses in no way detract from the story which delves into the soul of hero and captures the soul of the city.

"Severin's Journey Into Dark" is a beautiful book about Prague, and about a man who spoils all of his chances for happiness, love and freedom. It was difficult at first for me to understand the cruel things Severin does, but I view them, now, as symptoms of an evil and misery that he cannot suppress. There is a laundry list of colorful characters in this book, and the plot seems to drift with uncertainty. This is not a bad thing, as it gives the reader some empathy towards Serverin's own confusion. The dark is a symbol that comes up throughout the book. There seems to be a lot of dark in Prague.

Paul Krassner is an amazing writer who sees the pain of the last half-century so clearly that he can't even take himself seriously. I love the playful way he pokes fun at our most horrendous historical peaks because, after all, if you couldn't laugh you just might not be able to stop crying. He's fun, and a lot of people have had fun with him. Unfortunately, I'm afraid that hurts his credibility, and that hurts any vision of truth he may have. Still, I was so impressed by an online essay that came to an email list I'm on that I looked him up on amazon.com and found this book. I just know that what we need more of these days is the kind of underground press Krassner was an important part of in the 60s. I'm glad he's still around. I would like to see him get just a little more serious. It's not funny anymore.

Paul Krassner's reporting style is part Gonzo, part radical/hippie sensibilities, part grinning wiseass. He gets into his stories by becoming part of them; sometimes, by veering into the center of the action; other times, by perching.

I find Krassner's reportorial meddling in proportion to the sanity of the story's surroundings. When he's forced to perch (the Patty Hearst trial, the Moscone-Milk murders or Jonestown), he's still meddling with the players, but the events themselves are so mired in political agenda, shoddy lawyering, power freaks gone mad, and (of course) Krassner's own paranoia, that making sense of the facts becomes a struggle against sheer exhaustion.

His style in his California social landscape pieces keep good company with Joan Didion's work in Slouching towards Bethlehem. Unlike Didion, who is practically pH-neutral in her reporting, Krassner is hip to his scenes. In this collection he covers New Age guru Terence McKenna and a Swinger's Convention. Like Didion, though, he can participate without losing his role as a reporter to us. He reserves comment in places where I suspected he might well have interjected an insight, but you might also say he just lets his subjects speak for themselves.

Of particular note: Krassner's collation of facts around Patty Hearst's kidnapping and trial for bank robbery show how exhaustion can beat the reporter down. The center cannot hold in those stories, and Krassner doesn't try to manufacture a stable one. The Hearst pieces best reflect Krassner's conviction that people with power have no use for reason unless it suits their purpose. That's a harsh world, one that's as difficult to deny as it is to accept.

i have to admit,james robinson really won me out on this one.this is his storytelling before his ideas started to grow a little stale,lately.it's an easy and fun read,is the best i can,or anyone else,can put it.it has a nice sense of fantasy and the mystery of unexplored places. chance falcon,a pre-adolescent school girl is trying to win her father out into the next "falcon",the title of a wizard passed down generations except the only catch to it is yo gotta be a son.and it's too dangerous for her anyway,but she proves her dad and all of us she take take the most dangerous of adventures and come out true.it's got suspense and adventure and paul smith's artwork fits in this series like a glove.it's simple yet gorgeous.kinda how jeff smith's artwork fits into bone,smith's illustration belongs in leave it to chance. read this book to go through a wonderful romp of adventure.

This graphic novel (originally published in 4 comic books) introduces Chance Falconer who lives in a modern world where magic exists. Chance is the daughter of the great Lucas Falconer whose family has protected the city from supernatural threats for generations. As Chance tries to prove to her father that she's ready to be trained in the "family business" a mystery is uncovered and a great adventure ensues.

I LOVE this book and the rest of the series. The artwork and the writing work perfectly together - telling a complex and intelligent story without losing the sense of innocence and fun that is at its heart.

I've given copies of the book to adult friends of mine, children, and early teens and all of them have enjoyed it.

I won't buy a book for a kid or teen unless I've read it and liked it. I've had a hard time finding adventure books about girls (there are so few) that fit this bill. But "Leave it to Chance" is a winner.

In SHAPING SUBURBIA, Paul Lewis craftily presents the thinking behind the well-known hypothesis that political fragmentation is associated with suburban sprawl. He futhers the thinking by providing a new numerical index of metropolitan political fragmentation and subsequently by testing its usefulness in empirical analysis. He investigates further the effects of political fragmentation by providing to case studies of the effects of state and local political organizational structure and action on local economic development. For the main part, the case studies are interesting and well-written, although more than a cursory knowledge of the specific geopolitical landscapes will help the reader through some of presentation of the more tangled struggles in the two metropolitan areas (Denver and Portland [Oregon]). I found Lewis's Political Fragmentation Index (PFI) particularly intriguing. It measures both the division of local government expenditures within a metropolitan area as well as the total level of local government expenditures per capita across the metropolitan area. Using it he shows that metro areas with high fragmentation (according to his index) tend to lose more than their "fair share" of office jobs, have more of a mismatch between where jobs are and where households reside, and have more "edge cities." He is unable to show that it affects the metropolitan density gradient, however. The statistical approaches that he uses are overly simplistic and the number of metropolitan attributes that he controls for across metropolitan areas is minimal. I am certain that he would agree that he should have controlled for the decision-making efficiency of the internal political structure of the primary central city, as well as the degree to which the metro area in general maintained a laissez-faire political ethos. Nonetheless, he has developed an index that could prove useful in other studies of metropolitan public finance. I am sure that Lewis's PFI will be used, modified, and retested many times during the next decade. Lewis never really touches on how fragmentation can be avoided. He also does not straight out say that it should be avoided. This is surprising in light of the many times he points to failures (public and private) that result from political fragmentation of metropolitan areas. As a result SHAPING SUBURBIA merely illuminates a well-known problem without providing a solution.

Paul Lewis has produced a profoundly important work on the role that state legislation, tax laws and public institutions play in producing the variety of TYPES of suburban development patterns seen across the American landscape. The case studies of the Denver and the Portland areas are illuminating and convincing. The study is based on the use of statistical data (which is organized efficiently and presented well for the lay reader), documentary and archival materials and interviews with public officials and private developers in both areas. In addition to its methodological resourcefulness, the book is also very well-written. It is accessible to those impatient with academic jargon and internecine debates among contending schools of politics and economics.

Having lived in the Colorado Front Range for 16 years, I can say with certainty that Lewis' Chapters 4 and 5 remain the ONLY comprehensive treatment of the growth patterns and policies in the Denver metro area. It should be required reading for legislators and civic leaders who grapple with growth and planning issues in Colorado. What's more, the solutions to the problems Denver has endured are apparent to the attentive reader, although their is no 'cookbook' recipe for change.

A timely and impressive piece of scholarship.

There are amazing photos in this book -- it reminds you how young Elvis was in 1956. See him in rehearsals with Milton Berle, Debra Paget, and Scotty & Bill. There's not much text in this book, but really how much text can there be about one television show appearance. It's the photos that count.

Believe it or not but Books by Ger Rijff are ALWAYS of high quality: Paper, Photo's, Lay-out....everything is done with knowledge and love and care for Elvis. Yet, when his books hit the shelves they hardley sell more then 2000 copies. Why?. No one knows. These books, and thus this one as well, deserves a larger audiance. YOU are there when the King starts his trip to ever lasting fame, It is Pure Elvis. Besides it also gives a great view of the time in wich it all happend: The Fifties. Go back in time, buy this book. It will be a joy that will make you want more.