This biography of Admiral Lewis L. Strauss recalls the professional life of the man who "dominated U.S. atomic policy more than any other man in the formative years of the Atomic age, 1946-58" (preface). In his depiction of this apolitical figure, the author focuses on his hard-nosed professional life, therefore excluding his familial and personal relationships. The book tells of his rejection by the senate, the effects of atom bombs on the Japanese, his decision to excommunicate Robert Oppenheimer from decision making, his part in nuclear weapons testing, and his relationship with president Eisenhower. During the course of the work, the author makes it clear that Strauss labored diligently to save the world from nuclear catastrophe; he even opposed the atomic attack on Nagasaki.

Many will lend this book but few will get it back. It contains the heavily edited transcripts from a series of interviews conducted by Lewis Wolpert on BBC Radio 3 and it maintains the high standard set by Bryan Magee who pioneered the art of extended interviews with men of ideas on the BBC. The result is a treasure-trove of insights into the world of science at the highest level. The book itself is beautifully designed and printed.

The thirteen interviews are grouped in five sections. 'First and Last Things' introduces the theoretical physicists Abdus Salam and Michael Berry, the cosmologist Martin Rees and the mathematician Christopher Zeeman. 'Molecules of Life' offers the chemist Dorothy Hodgkin and three molecular biologists - Francis Crick, Sydney Brenner and Gunther Stent. 'Evolving Ideas' presents John Maynard Smith and Stephen Jay Gould, evolutionary biologists. 'The Search' contains Anthony Epstein, a virologist, and the geneticist Walter Bodmer. Richard Gregory the neuropsychologist has a section to himself titled 'Cunning Mechanisms'.

The challenge for a book like this is to find people who can talk about their field in simple terms. They also need to convey some insights into the activities that are involved in their work, and the "feel" of it all. This book suceeds handsomely because all the subjects are interesting and coherent, at least in the edited form provided to us. Wolpert has done very well to draw out his subjects with the lightest of touches here and there to nudge the discussion forward.

Deep philosophical thoughts do not feature in the dialogues apart from Wolpert's occasional recourse to Kuhn's language of paradigm shifts. Despite this, useful insights abound. Martin Rees draws a contrast between his own pluralistic approach to rival theories - "running the horses against each other" to see if any fall by the wayside, and the more dogmatic approach of the "advocates" who feel obliged to defend their pet ideas against all criticisms. Richard Gregory points out that the academic battles between rival dogmatists are "very much fought by forgetting half of the counter-evidence". He prefers to maintain friendly relations with opponents, "not working in cupboards and getting amazingly aggressive about other people who think a bit differently" (page 197).

Francis Crick, as one would expect from reading The Double Helix, displays a thoroughly "Popperian" perspective - 'It's getting rid of false ideas which is the most important thing in developing the good ones...You should not get bogged down with experimental details. You should make some sort of bold assumptions, and try them out' (pp 94-5). This contrasts with the compulsive experimentalist Anthony Epstein who states 'I don't understand any of that [talk of theory]. I think just sort of messing about is the answer. You've just go to keep messing about at the bench...You make a little bit of apparatus...You see how to change this just a little bit...and you want to tinker with something'(p 165).

Only one of these scientists (Gunther Stent) has been touched by the current vogue for the "social construction of science". The others tend to think that the world is there, in all its complexity and glory, and we do the best we can to improve our understanding of it. In the words of Michael Berry 'It's very important to always realize that there are phenomena, that there is a world outside our heads that we're trying to explain. Otherwise it's a curious game, a form of self indulgence which I think is intellectually not very worthwhile' (47).

Similarly the notion of objective truth is maintained, notably by Stephen Jay Gould, who has made his mark as a leading opponent of the anti-evolutionary movement that sometimes calls itself "Creationism" or "Creation Science". Gould likes to regard himself as a "New York city street kid" and his two unfulfilled dreams are to play centre field for the Yankees baseball team, and to sing Wotan at the Met.

These scientists display few characteristics in common apart from a burning interest in their vocation and a certain amount of entrepreneurial flair in making the most of opportunities. Many of these arose from the disruption of career paths by the war. For example a bomb destroyed the laboratory where Francis Crick had been painfully making his way as an experimental physicist. Fortunately he was elsewhere doing war work on mines at the time and, after the war, he tossed up between brain research and molecular biology for a change of direction. The impact of hostilities on Abdus Salam was less spectacular but equally decisive. Born in a peasant community in Pakistan he regarded the Civil Service as the peak of achievement but the war stopped the entrance exams and he did an MA in mathematics instead. This earned him a scholarship to Cambridge which led, in turn, to the Cavendish Laboratory and eventually to a share in the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1979.

These talks provide a wealth of background insights into some of the most significant advances in modern science. No summary or paraphrase can do justice to the engaging personal voices which speak from it. This is a book to read with pleasure, and one to re-read, if you can get it back from the person who borrowed it.

Girl staters in Texas will never forget her. Francis Goff is an important lady in Texas history because she had three wonderful careers. First, she worked as a legislative aide and State Budget Director. Then, she put in countless years at the famous M.. D. Anderson Cancer Center as special assistant to its founder Dr. R. Lee Clark. Finally, she served for decades as the director of Bluebonnet Girl's State where thousands of Texas high school girls got their first glimpse of real politics. Francis Goff is a Texas legend who was friend to George Bush, Barbara Jordan, and Lyndon Johnson. This book has some wonderful photos and includes a forward by Ann Richards.

I had to read a few chapters from this book for one of my finance classes. At first I was very skeptical of the text because of the authors' obsession with CAPM, beta, and modern portfolio theory. These concepts make no sense at all. They only serve to illustrate that even the most elegant mathematical models of the world have little practical value if the underlying assumptions are wrong. Very soon, however, my initial prejudice towards the book began to disappear. Eventually, I read the entire textbook, which wasn't required by my instructor. I still believe that CAPM and modern portfolio theory are all wrong but I was fascinated by authors' extensive discussion of NPV and Capital Structure. NPV, indeed, is the only proper way to value any business venture and no compromise can be made in this respect. Brealey & Myers got that one right.The book is well written and most of the examples and explanations are easy to comprehend...

This Brealey and Myers's textbook, now in its 7th edition, introduces the student to the fascinating world of corporate finance. The first few chapters of the book demystify Net Present Value, the preferred method for calculating the value of an investment project. Brealey and Myers then explain how risk and return are related and introduce the Capital Asset Pricing Model. The CAPM's strengths and weaknesses are both explored in detail. The authors continue by analyzing the significance of dividend policy and debt policy for a corporation -- including the rather surprising result that in perfect markets these just don't matter! The next topic is options, financial and real; major pricing models are covered, and warrants and convertibles get a fair treatment, too. The remaining parts of the book deal with a variety of topics such as valuing debt, managing financial risks, financial planning as well as mergers and corporate governance.

At 1071 pages, Principles of Corporate Finance can hardly be called a short book. Introductory textbooks often suffer from a "too-much-too-little" syndrome, in that numerous topics are covered, but none too well. Brealey and Myers easily avoid this pitfall. Their writing is solid and manages to keep the reader's interest. Although available space puts a limit on what can be said, the book's coverage is quite comprehensive and well linked to the results of modern research. Moreover, all topics receive their fair share of treatment so you can actually understand the theories the book presents. It should be noted here that some mathematical background is probably necessary to make the book easy reading.

Each chapter contains many problems which can be used to facilitate the learning process. I found them very useful. The only complaint I have about the book (International Edition) is that the binding proved less than perfect, as after a while pages started separating from the main body of the work. But that is a problem I can live with.

All in all, an interesting, readable, authoritative introduction to corporate finance.

I have used this book three times now: as an undergraduate in financial economics, at the training program at an investment bank, and at the core finance course at my MBA. It is a very good resource and learning tool, going from the very basic ideas of discounting all the way to options pricing and more innovative finance.

This is the preferred learning tools of all finance professors I have met and the reference used by all finance professionals I met. It is very simple to follow the concepts of the book, especially if you purchase the study guide that is available with it.

The only major concern I have heard is that it does not deal with the more recent finance problems of off-balance sheet financing and other shenanigans. This is a book meant to teach basic financial theory, so those topics, in my opinion, are better treated elsewhere.

Western 'Orientalists' have a rather poor grasp of certain aspects of Asian history and culture. These mainly pertain to the descriptions of the nature of Asiatic religions and their role in history. This is particularly true of the scholars from reputed institutions such as the Harvard University. This book also suffers from the same problem. The ARYAN invasion is of critical importance to the origin of the principle Asiatic cultures and Indo-European linguistics in general. It has been very poorly treated. The later parts on the Achaemenid and Islamic periods have been better dealt with. The kushans while poorly understood have not been particularly well described in this text.

With the publication of Dr. Richard Frye's The Heritage of Central Asia from Antiquity to the Turkish Expansion (Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1996, hardcover (ISBN 1558761101 ) and softcover (ISBN 155876111X), 264 pages) at last we have for Central Asia an overview book worth reading by novice and veteran alike. As the title implies, topics in the book include geography, pre-history, Zoroastrianism and Achaemenid Persians, Alexander the Great and the Greeks, the Parthians, nomads, Kushans, Silk Road trade, Buddhism, Sogdians, Muslims, Turks and much more. There are several (somewhat small) maps and a fair number of illustrations and photographs. Appendix topics include sources, geographical names (always a challenge in Central Asia), rulers in Bukhara and Samarkand, Sogdian deities, languages and coinage. The book is fully-indexed. Professor Frye of Harvard University is one of the deans of the field, especially in the area of Persia and author of numerous books including the recently re-published Bukhara. The very real accomplishment of this book is its comprehensive form which for once does not concentrate solely on a single time or place, but instead successfully communicates a feel for what was happening in all the regions throughout these historical periods. Much is to be learned and many questions will be answered. In some areas of research, of course, due to insufficient sources, the jury is still out and Frye does what one wants him to: he sets up the parameters of the question and the possibilities such that when someday new finds are made, the reader can judge them in the proper context. When he speculates, he informs the reader that that is what he is doing and refrains from offering theories without evidence as if they were fact. The conjectures too, as well as the facts, are always interesting coming as they do from a researcher of this stature and experience. Dr. Frye, who met the famous Sir Aurel Stein, first of the Foreign Devils of the Silk Road, and by extension his work, is a link back to the earliest Silk Road research and forward to what may be revealed by future excavations of mummies in Xinjiang and in the newly-independent republics of Central Asia. This book will be a valuable and often-consulted volume in the library of anyone with a passion for the Silk Road.

There is an enormous amount of detail in some apparently unimportant topics (for example on how to get a green card for your maid) and very little on very important ones (for example on labor certification). The topic of labor certification is a subsection in the chapter for "Live-In Domestic Workers" !

This book may be good if you are trying to get a green card for your maid, though.

i wish going to usa to be with my brother hosam

I believe this book may be of interest to many readers.
First of all, it explains how visitors from abroad can legally prolong their stay in the USA. It's possible to apply for an extension of one's visitor's status without leaving the USA. And this book guides well through this procedure.
Secondly, those who are interested in applying for a green card, should find the most suitable category if they want to succeed. The book describes qualifications and outlines the application process for each of them.
Many people don't know that they may be inadmissible for one or another reason even if they otherwise meet all the green card applicant requirements. Someone already in the US, and still may not be allowed to proceed if he or she falls into one of the inadmissible categories - as a violator of immigration rules in the past or for health reasons, for example. Some people find this out only after passing a medical exam. But you may want to learn about the regulations in advance. The book covers this issue in detail, including who and how can apply for a waiver of inadmissibility.
Another sensitive chapter is on cancellation of deportation. How and in what cases this may be done...
Also, you'll find some important information on how and who is eligible to claim status as a refugee or political asylee.
In all, I think the book is pretty informative and filled with practical advice. It's also easy to read and understand.

The quality of the speakers in this collection varied. Some, like those by Fred Friendly and Tom Brokaw, were interesting and thought-provoking but the decline in talent from lecture to lecture was obvious - the last one was by conservative ideologue and media mogul Rupert Murdoch, defending sleeze (sp?) on TV. The editors also did a poor job - all they had to do was transcribe some speeches. The fact that they wound up with spelling and grammatical errors just goes to show how quickly this work was thrown together. My advice - read the offerings by Wicker, Chancellor, Friendly and Brokaw and skip the rest.

For those of us living along the Lewis and Clark trail in Montana and using this book with school children who study Lewis and Clark, we found an obvious error of historical fact. Lewis and Clark never traveled into the Flathead Valley as Kroll states on page 23. Instead, the explorers crossed over Lost Trail Pass into our lovely Bitterroot Valley and traveled north to make camp at Traveler's Rest, on the edge of present day Lolo, MT. The old Lolo trail (now US highway 12) leaves the Bitterroot Valley crossing the Bitterroot Mountains to the west. Could it be Kroll became confused because the Native Americans Lewis and Clark met in the Bitterroot were the Salish Flathead tribe?

It turns out this book is about anagrams; it is not a deep exploration of Lewis Carroll's life. Supposedly, Charles Dodgson AKA Lewis Carroll used anagrams to encode homosexual messages into his work. A quick trip to anagramfun.com convinced me that one can find anagrams for anything in anything. I even found a clever one for the title of this work, which amazon.com won't let me print.

The author of this book repeats over and over how he set a very strict rule of using all the letters in a phrase for constructing anagrams. Let us now turn to page 40, and I quote, "There are fifty letters in the verse aqnd with eight removed an anagram emerges which I believe represents a manifesto..."

The anagram is then used as one of the epigraphs of the book.

So what was that about a strict rule?

This book is simply filled with bizarre assumptions. The underlying assumption is that Lewis Carroll filled his poems and stories with a variety of anagrams that tell about his homosexuality, his lust for young children, his desire for dalliances with animals, his hate for his father, and on and on. Every incident in a story must mean something sordid. Every phrase must be turned into the most foul and vulgar anagram possible. I'm reminded of the Freud quote; "Somtimes a cigar is just a cigar." Mr. Wallave would have done well to heed this thought.

One possible anagram for this title:
ANGRY SELECTOR ILL OAF WHO
wrote this darn book.

I was sorry to see the negative review of this book. I read it and the following book with great interest. I've read extensively about criminology, psychology, and serial killers, including all the current thought on Jack the Ripper. Overall, I think the book makes an interesting case. And, it's well written and just plain interesting. We have such a nostalgic view of Carroll's work, it's difficult to see it challenged. But, that's one reason I like the book & author; a cherished subject is not often examined critically and when it's well done (as this is), it provides a new lens to view the subject.