The book 'Galactic Astronomy: Structure and Kinematics', by Dimitri Mihalas and James Binney, is a classic, basic text for those interested beyond the basic level of what a galaxy is and how it is structured.

This is a revision of a text first written in 1967 -- as scientific advances have proceeded at an ever increasing speed, this text too is lacking in many of the most recent discoveries and interpretations. However, it still provides a significant introduction to many basic ideas and patterns that have not changed over time. There has been a follow-up by James Binney and Michael Merrifield published recently.

Galactic astronomy, with the increasing understanding of large-scale physics and the increasing data from telescopes, both visual and extra-visual, has made great strides in understanding the composition, motions and developments of galaxies -- not only spiral galaxies such as our own, but other galactic shapes and structures, too. This book addresses the structure and kinematics. A word of explanation: kinematics is the study of motion without reference to the forces which cause the motion -- dynamics addresses that, and that is not included in this text, but rather left for a second volume.

This volume begins with a basic overview of the our conception of our own galaxy, giving a brief historical overview of explanations about the Milky Way and how this developed into the idea of a disc of stars; the recognition of our Sun being not in the centre but rather in a more unremarkable spot on one of the arms of the galaxy; the increasing knowledge from better and better observational data of the number of stars and other constituents of the galaxy, and the plotting of movement of individual stars and the collective motion of the galaxy. With the additional charting of dark matter, globular clusters, and other pieces, an increasingly accurate portrait of our home galaxy has been made.

The volume then gives a 'refresher' on astronomical terminology and concepts as related to galactic astronomy. Positions and coordinate systems, motions, measurements using parallax, stellar spectra, magnitudes and colours, energy distributions, and a refresher on the cataloguing system help to put the rest of the text in perspective. Particularly as galaxies are primarily made up of stars, the physical properties stars--masses, evolution, types of stars--are examined in detail, along with information about interstellar absorption and other galactic constituents.

Then, galactic astronomy begins in earnest, with a discussion of the distribution of stars and other elements in our own galaxy. Methods of star counting, apparent versus real distribution of stars and elements, distribution in the disc and distribution in the spheroidal component, as well as stellar populations are covered. From here, a description of other types of galaxies (morphology, magnitudes, distances, spectrophotometric properties) enlarges the ideas of galactic ideas. In examining other galactic types, Mihalas and Binney give a cautionary tale, one that is true in observational astronomy generally -- one thing may look like another, even with the most sophisticated of measuring tools. People may make assumptions about observational data trends that can skew large-scale ideas of the entire universe.

'Biases of the kind...may affect our understanding of the Universe in two important ways. (1) We may be unaware of the existence of numerous compact galaxies or diffuse, faint galaxies, which together might contribute significantly to the mass density and dynamics of the Universe, and which might feature prominently in the world views of observers whose skies are either darker or less hazy than our own. (2) We may seriously misjudge the nature and size of 'normal' galaxies.'

While our data today is yet again much better than that used when this text was compiled, these caveats are still of importance, as the hunt for dark matter, less luminous objects, and hidden material still continues.

In discussing the kinematics, the motion of galaxies, Mihalas and Binney begin with solar and stellar motions, and then proceed from there. Using relative parallax measurements and motion around the galactic centre, they proceed to describe the kinematics of stars both in the disk and the halo (the spheroidal-component), also observing the varying velocities. Estimation and application of general rotation laws from our own galaxy to other galaxies is a rather difficult one to observe, given the continuing difficulties of pinpointing individual constituents in vastly distant galaxies for measurement.

This is a book on how galaxies are, and some basic information about the motion of galaxies. A follow-up volume, published in 1987, dealt with galactic dynamics. Many questions remained unanswered at the time of publication, and still remain unanswered. However, for the serious astronomer (amateur or professional -- and astronomy is one of the few sciences in which to be an amateur is a respected status), this book gives insight and information on a fascinating branch of the study of the universe. Intended for late undergraduate and graduate-level study.

Clearly not intended for the merely casual reader, this volume presents eleven deadly-serious essays that apply modern analytical methods to issues and problems facing the Greek Nation and State, with a view toward indicating what seems to be working and what needs adjusting. The fields covered are politics, foreign relations, economics, sociology, and change in all of these areas. Some essays require a high level of competence in the methodology of the given area; others are more immediately accessible even to the informed layman. One discusses the contributions to nation building made by the Orthodox Church since the early 19th Century and points out some changes that might be made in the Church's relations with government and society at this point in history. Another speaks to Greek attitudes toward making a living and contributing to the common economic good (problems here). There is also an extremely intelligent feminist article that examines the glass ceiling phenomenon in the Greek setting, particularly in the labor force and politics. The writer, Nota Kyriazis, points out that de jure equality...does not automatically produce a real improvement in women's status because attitudes and behaviors tend to remain tied to tradition and resistant to change. As indicated, all these essays are serious and scholarly. Everyone who still has some hope for our collective human future and the Greek stake in such a future should read at least some of them. The quality of analysis and writing is consistent throughout -- uniformly high.

The thing I liked most about the book is that it is a collection of essays from several authors who are experts in various facets of the Greek-Turkish relationship and represent different sides of the story. The authors were Greek, Turkish, American, and British. The issues addressed include, as usual, the effect of the Cyprus problem on the two countries, the impact of the EU, the role of NATO, border disputes, treatment of minorities, and Middle Eastern security. However, this book was not just a narative on the problems facing the two countries but also a discussion of solutions to easing strained relations and resolving problems in the Greek-Turkish arena. Overall, a nice variety of viewpoints and potential solutions.

This book is full of interviews with musicians and the author got them all to talk about thieir inner expereince as creative people. The cool thing is, it's not too soppy or mushy. There's a sense of humor and a sharpness to the writing that makes it really readbale. I really recommend it to anyone inter4ested in music, spirituality, and the place where those two areas mix.

Nancy Jimenez

Lots of useful information for reliability engineering, fleet risk managers, risk analysts ect. A valuable companion volume for his "Reliability & Life Testing Handbook, Vol 1 & 2".

Though Nabokov's novels, like the luscious "Lolita" and the poetic "Pale Fire" are well-known and read, it's little known that he was also a playwright. This book collects some of his better dramas, all written when he was still a young man, and all written in his native Russian rather than the English that he mastered. One, blank verse masterpiece, is translated so poetically you won't know the difference. A great book to place next to his novels.

Excellent book. I agree with much of the editorial review. I have found this book very useful for my work in distributed computation. The authors are thorough and exact in their work and rely heavily on matrix and probabilistic methods for their results. If you are into parallel and distributed algorithms, then this is a must have book.

The two volume series should be a standard reference in any reliability engineering / research lab. Lots of useful information that is explained clearly with lots of worked examples ..reccomended this highly !

A better title could have been "Reliable accounting for risk, its financial reporting and internal control". It is written against a background of major banking blunders due to their failure to properly account for, report and control risk. This makes the comparision of different accounting standards between countries easier to understand with a discussion of the historical context. (usually the comparison of standards is dead boring - in this book it is not). One of the good things about this book is that it goes beyond the current accounting standards and internal control methods to suggest ways to improve them. It has a very practical approach to issues relating to accounting for risk. Its discussions are deep without being too complex.

"Good" is the best word to describ this book. If you want to do a research on Transaction Management over Distributed Database, read this book first.