This book was amazingly helpful in my field of study. One of the best books on the determination of neural receptive fields, function, and networks. The authors truly know the information they present.

R.B. Cunninghame Graham's books are the sort of non-fiction that can almost be passed off as fiction. Desolate but fascinating wastelands, journeys over the silent terrain of the Americas, encounters with the bare edges of existence -- all make his works so engaging that I can't think of any writers to compare with him except his friends Joseph Conrad and W.H. Hudson.

Culled from his thirty or more books, Graham's "North American Sketches" were written between 1880 and 1925. They form the companion volume to his stunning South American and Scottish sketches also edited by John Walker. Here, we travel with the eccentric Scottish gaucho and radical MP for Menteith to the Mexican frontier and the Texas borderlands.

It is a savage world oscillating between barbarity and loneliness Graham describes for us. Time is punctuated with bloodshed, pointless cruelty, man's inhumanity to man, but also with hope and awe of this still wild land. "A Hegira," perhaps the most powerful sketch, depicts Graham's repeated encounters with six fugitive Mexican Apaches escaping from "the law" as he and his wife head north from Mexico City to their San Antonio ranch. "Silent and stoical the warriors sat," he describes them in the first encounter, before their flight, "not speaking once in a whole day, communicating but by signs; naked except the breech-clout; their eyes apparently opaque, and looking at you without sight, but seeing everything." These figures from two worlds meet up again. "Days followed days as in a ship at sea; the waggons rolling on across the plains" as Graham's party continually spies traces of the Apaches fleeing to their homes in the north, pursued by Mexican Indian hunters who, over a week, track down and kill them all. Nothing during his journey inspires in him so much fascination as those "stoical," silent "indios bravos": "I wondered what they thought, how they looked upon the world."

There is in these sketches a profound sense of disenchantment with civilization as practised, with "progress" as conceived. The American and Mexican public, he writes, doubtless believe in the problematical "Uncle Sam's Justice [sic]," the "poetical justice" of slaughtering Indians. Nevertheless, Graham does not completely scorn "civilization"; far from it. "We might have taught [the Indians] something, they might have taught us much, but soon they will all be forgotten, and the lying telegrams will speak of 'glorious victories by our troops.' " Some sketches, in fact, exhibit Graham's great admiration for the Anglo and Mexican societies he in other places condemns. "A Chihuahueño" is a wonderful portrait of Miguel Sáenz, a mestizo from Chihuahua. Full of Sáenz's witty proverbs, the sketch shows Graham's fascination with folk sayings. "Trust not a mule nor a wench", Sáenz quips; and "Among soldiers and prostitutes all compliments stand excused."

Graham's portraits of Mexico and Texas are every bit as fascinating as his awesome South American Sketches. If you like W.H. Hudson and Joseph Conrad, you'll love R.B. Cunninghame Graham.

There's something most of us find fascinating about the lineages of persons of note, whether they're royalty, U.S. presidents, movie stars, military leaders, or literary and historical figures like Pocahontas and Louisa May Alcott. The Virginia ancestry of the Queen Mother is relatively well known, as are the New England cousins of the late Princess of Wales and the Duchess of York -- but did you know Elvis Presley, Jimmy Carter, and Jesse Helms are all collaterally related? Roberts is probably the leading expert at this sort of thing, especially when it comes to uncovering surprising connections, like the British royal descent of Karl Marx's wife (whose grandmother was Scottish), and he carefully lays out examples of what might be called "genealogical evolution," demonstating that genealogy really is inclusive, not exclusive. Many British, European, and American contemporaries are much more closely related than we often realize. There are also a number of descents contributed by guest columnists which maintain the same high standard of documentation.

Looking for a text that explains the maths and the implementation of optimisation? I needed to write a program that included numerical optimisation, but I didn't understand the maths. I'd tried to read some other books on the subject, but I gave up because they presumed too much background knowledge and because they were written in an academic format (all proofs, greek letters and algebra) too obscure for me to wade through.

This book explains everything in plain english. When there is a new concept to be introduced, they begin with a practical example of the problem and then step through the solution. Any proofs are accompanied by graphs and words. The emphasis is on practicality and concepts rather than algebraic rigour.

I recommend this book to anyone who needs to create their own optimisations, or who wants to understand what goes on inside their software.

Talisse has written the best little introduction to Rawls I have read to date. While there is a sea of secondary writing on Rawls (much of it on my book shelves), for use in undergraduate courses in political philosophy or for use by the average reader who just wants to know where such notions and phrases as "veil of ignorance" and "difference principle" come from and what they are all about, none beats Talisse's concise exposition.

"Once A Marine," the engaging memoirs of Alexander A. Vandegrift - eighteenth Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, is a remarkable story. The story is that of a leader who dedicated forty years of his life in service to his country, his Corps, and his fellow Marines. He did it all with personal humility and without losing perspective of the Corps' role in American government and society. This book is an important part of any World War II or Marine Corps collection.

This book illustrates General Vandegrift's belief in the importance of communication, as dozens of his letters to family, friends, leaders, and fellow servicemen are included. Also included are selections from his many speeches, including the famous "bended knee" speech that he gave before Congress to state the convincing case for the very existence of the Marine Corps.

Told here is the story of Vandegrift's career, which truly spanned the globe, with service in Cuba, Panama, Nicaragua, Mexico, Haiti, New Zealand, Australia, China, Guadalcanal, Bougainville, and American locations such as Maine, North Carolina, and Washington, DC. Throughout many actions and from the Atlantic to the Pacific, he relates his extensive service under larger-than-life figures such as Smedley Butler, Thomas Holcomb, Douglas MacArthur, Chester Nimitz, and William Halsey. Also, we learn that in Vandegrift's Pacific actions and campaigns, he led other Marines who would become legends in their own rights - Clifton Cates, Merritt Edson, Joe Foss, Roy Geiger, Herman Hanneken, Randolph Pate, Lewis Puller, Lemuel Sheppard, David Shoup, Julian Smith, and Holland Smith. Five of these Marines would go on to become Commandants themselves.

Vandegrift led the 1st Marine Division in its successful invasion of Guadalcanal, which was the first American offensive action in the Pacific Theater during World War II. This book gives an extensive narration of the invasion for which he ultimately received the Congressional Medal of Honor. Throughout his career, Vandegrift continued to break new ground. As Commandant, he was the first Marine four-star general on active duty.

In a large downtown park in my city, there is a monument dedicated to Marines fallen in combat. General Vandegrift was present and dedicated the monument on November 11th, 1947. From reading this book, I learned that in Washington, DC Vandegrift had named his successor only the day before, on November 10th - the 172nd birthday of the Marine Corps. The fall of 1947 also saw Vandegrift and the Corps emerge successful from the final round of a multiyear struggle for the continuation of the Marine Corps as a separate and distinct service. Vandegrift's dedication, honesty, humility, and foresight for the future of the Corps lead the way in this momentous struggle.

It is often said that Marines do not leave their dead behind. As General Alexander A. Vandegrift, in the twilight of his career, stood at the monument to fallen brothers-in-arms on that rainy November day, he proved that saying to be right. After reading this book, you will know the character that makes up such a great leader.

This is a fine, well ilustrated book which is a must-have for practicing urologists and residents. The topics in each chapter are up-to-date and cover the operations done in daily practice by office or hospital based urologists.

An Excellent Book.. A Must For All The Managers In Any Organistaion.

This is a very impressive book on infectious diseases in childhood and adolescence for both specialists in pediatrics, infectious disease and family medicine. It is edited by Hal B Jenson from the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and Robert S Baltimore from the Yale University School of Medicine and the departments of Pediatrics, Epidemiology and Public Health.
The editors have gathered 71 contributors from the field of pediatrics, infectious disease, microbiology, immunology, dermatology and internal medicine. Most from the United States with one contribution from Canada and one from Jamaica.
This textbook is extensive with 106 chapters and a useful index with each chapter well edited and devided into classical sections of etiology, epidemiology, pathogenesis, symptoms and clinical manifestations, diagnosis, treatment, complications, prevention and references.
We have looked at many chapters and found useful information in a clear and straightforward language. One question we especially looked for was when to give a hepatitis B booster, but this is still left unanswered.
This is an important book that should be found at every pediatric department library, on the desk of the consultant in infectious disease and also important for the adult specialist in infectious diseases serving the pediatric population.

This book explained Piaget's theory in different developmental stages clearly. The book offers educators how to apply his theory in teaching. It is a good book for people who are not familiar with Piaget's theory or for educators who are not sure how to apply Piaget's theory in classrooms. It is a good resource for those who would be interested in teaching children based on Piaget's theory, such as teachers and home schooling's parents. It is also a good textbook for college students.