An excellent text for the real world of RF design, covering noise calculations, mixers, oscillators, filters, amplifiers, modulation and demodulation, PLLs, and other aspects of RF communications. Though I personally prefer Hayward's "Introduction to Radio Frequency Design" (especially for its treatment of oscillator circuits), I frequently refer to the Krauss & Bostian text for clarification of concepts and its greater emphasis on different schemes for modulation and demodulation. The treatment of PLLs is rather skimpy, but there are several textbooks specific to that subject (and even they gloss over some aspects).

In conjunction with Bowick's "RF Design" and Hayward's text, the Krauss & Bostian text delivers all the guidance needed for practical RF design.

What can I say? I laughed, I cried. When he got to the part about class D power amplifiers the suspence was killing me!

I have always been a fan of the intellectual debates in the New York Review of Books letters to the editor pages. This book consists of two articles by Crews and the subsequent debates surrounding them. I would have liked to see better defenses of Freud, but none of the eminent defenders of psychoanalysis is able to mount a serious challenge to Crews's devastating attacks.

This devastating book has two parts: (1) The Unknown Freud, where the reader gets a picture of Freud as a dictator, a megalomaniac and egotripper. A pope who alone knew the truth and who founded a secret commission to protect his 'church' against the heathen. He was a bad psychoanalyst (e.g. the Wolf Man case) and a venal man (e.g. the catastrophic Horace Fink case, where he tried to get his own hands on some money of the heiress).
I agree with the author that psychoanalysis is a pseudoscience - statements cannot be tested and the research results cannot be verified uniformly. Although it is not totally without meaning (Karl Popper), it is not a science.
(2) the revenge of the repressed
A frontal attack on the caste of the psychoanalysts, depicted as 'religious zealots, self-help evangelists, sociopolitical ideologues, and outright charlatans who trade in the ever seductive currency of guilt and blame, while keeping the doctor's fees mounting.'
The author is particularly severe with their latest 'school' : the 'recovered memory movement', based on the rape of children by their parents (really!). This lead to false accusations and condemnations of innocent people. No wonder the author predicts an accelerating collapse of psychoanalysis as a respected institution.
A much needed and courageous book to halt a profession riding at full speed on a misty highway. And a much needed angle on Freud as a person, written in a style to slaughter the not so innocent father of psychoanalysis.
After reading this book, I agree with Peter Madawar, who called doctrinaire psychoanalytic theory "the most stupendous intellectual confidence trick of the twentieth century".

Frederick Crews really knows how to tap that deep reservoir of hostility found in modern Freudian psychoanalysts. In 1993 and 1994 FC wrote two essays in the New York Review of Books debunking Freud in the first, and tearing to shreds the recovered memory movement in the second.

These two essays and the letters in response to them have been put into the book The Memory Wars. As someone trained in experimental psychology you can guess my own personal bias in this matter. Crews discusses Freud's botched cases; his frequent vacillation in theory formation; some of his sillier theories; and his serious interjection of personal bias into the formation of his beliefs. The main problem with the whole Freudian system is the total lack of scientific evidence supporting it. Freudian psychoanalysis is founded on anecdote and supported by anecdotes. To be fair, much current non-Freudian therapy is also based on anecdote. Indignant Freud followers write back, and their letters are indeed interesting (and often pompous).

The second half of the book takes on the recovered memory movement. It would be great to poke fun at this movement if it weren't for the fact that it has caused so much damage to all parties involved. Symptoms checklists are published with the statement if you suffer from these symptoms you may be a victim of sexual abuse. Read the list and you will find that the majority of Americans will find that they have been abused. It's all a patient seduction game with the intent to make big money. Hospitals have even set up units to treat such patients (Having worked in the psychiatric hospital industry I am well aware of the "product lines" that such facilities set up in order to fill beds). Crews does an excellent job of dissecting the memory movement, and once again we get to read the indignant responses.

Those who believe that psychological therapy should be based on sound scientific evidence will love this book. Those who have accepted Freudianism with a religious like faith will, of course, hate it. To me this whole subject is analogous to the evolution vs. creationist debate. It's science versus pseudoscience.

I haven't read the 1990 National Geographic article on new evidencies of Peary's reaching the N. Pole, but I've certainly read other books on polar expeditions and I sure recommend this one. Although Mr. Wally's literary value is somehow restricted (he's an explorer in the first place, not a writer)and that makes the beginning a bit tiresome, when it gets to discuss facts and attitudes in polar travelling he's certainly very good.

It doesn't matter wether Mr. Peary did or not reach the Pole after all. If you take a look at the history of polar expeditions, you will see that for decades nobody really cared about a sportsmen challenge (albeit formidable)which would not mean any particular contribution to mankind's knowledge or well-being, but they'd rather focus on expanding the limits of science through adecuate research.

I certainly admire polar travellers, and Amundsen's raid to the S. Pole is a paradigma, but none of the qualities or higher ambitions of people like Amundsen (he did many more things), Nansen, Shakcleton or Scott I can see in Peary or Cook.

Peary's atttitude towards the inuit and their belongings (read the episodes about the meteorits and eskimos being almost deported and afterwards dissected) would have been rejected by any of the other explorers I mentioned, and even under the light of early 20th century must be deplored.

Enjoy yourselves

Wally Herbert has presented a very thoroughly researched and documented book on the Peary/Cook race to the North Pole concluding that Cook flat out lied about arriving at the Pole (that's easy to correctly conclude)and Peary carelessly missed it by numerous navigational errors. This is a tale that can seemingly never be put to rest. Sir Wally Herbert is well qualified to research and write such a book as he himself dog sledded from Barrow Alaska, over the North Pole and back below the Arctic Circle to Spitzenberg in 1969. I thought the author was very even handed about his research and his fair presentation of the facts as he could best interpret them. I think however, Wally Herbert mistakenly concludes that Peary missed the Pole and presumably 'lied' about achieving his goal of being the first to arrive at the North Pole. After I read Herbert's book I took the opportunity to re-read a 1990 National Geographic article entitled "New Evidence Places Peary at the Pole". In the article an independent body of geographic, photographic and navigational experts from the Navigation Foundation of Rockville, MD were presented with all of the navigational details of Peary's diary notations, his photographs, ocean depth soundings and preserved navigational equipment. The article makes a very convincing and cogent presentation that Peary's photographs (the angle and extent of shadows within the exposures) when measured photogrammetrically present unalterable proof that the photos were taken with five miles of the pole. Further the ocean depth sounding results taken on the way to the pole by Peary are currently consistent with what we now know about the actual depth of the Arctic Ocean along the meridian travelled by the Peary Expedition. Although National Geographic and the Navigation Foundation have in my opinion substantiated Peary's success in attaining the pole this is no discredit to Herbert's well written book that should be read by anyone interested in polar and arctic history.

Mr. Herbert has laid to rest the question of priority at the North Pole, Commander Peary did not reach it and lied to the world about his claim. Forget the National Geographic, they would look very foolish to refute the story after all these years. We can hardly expect them to be objective. Almost all polar scholars agree. Peary did not obtain his goal(nor did Dr. Cook). Read this book, come to your own conclusion. I'm sure you will agree.

The author describes the arranging of orchestral scores - from choral works such as Mendelssohn's Elijah to purely orchestral compositions - for the organ. I found the numerous examples very helpful, although one still has a lot to do if one does not have a large 19th-century-influence organ (the book does not make your own thinking and experimenting unnecessary!). My experience is that the author is exactly right in pointing out which musical idioms lose their effect and musical sense when played literally on an organ. In short: If you have to accompany a choir from the piano reduction of an orchestral score, keep in mind what Mr. Ellingford points out.