This book can serve as a great endtable book with itslarge-page (12.5" x 9") format and accurate paintings of avariety of sharks by R. Ellis, but this book is more than that.

The book has excellent illustrations, paintings, and photographs, and biographies of several prominent shark researchers, conservationists, and shark-hunters. But more importantly, this book does a good job of summarizing aspects of the biology, ecology, and evolution of this amazing and intruiging group of animals.

Is this "the" definitive shark book? I would say that's a safe statement for the non-technical crowd. The only thing it needs to keep the technical crowd happy is a comprehensive list of references to scientific literature that was used to provide the information detailed in the book.

If you are interested in marine life, and in the lives and times of this group of top predators, then this book is for you.

Top marks, even though some of the information is becoming somewhat dated.

Mr Ellis has written the most informative, detailed book on every species of shark there is. Anything you want to know about sharks is in this book. I have read many shark books and myself and my husband are shark lovers and we believe this book is superb. Definitely recommendable.

When i was a kid growing up, sharks were (and still are) the greatest thing on earth. This book was the first book i ever read about sharks, although back then all i did was look at the pictures. I own the book still, and now that i am older, i know that is is one of the most thorough, and thought prevoking books dealing with this subject. It is a worthy entry in any shark lovers collection

The Elixir Of Life Manuscripts include Septimius Felton; or The Elixir Of Life, The Dolliver Romance, Dr. Grimshawe's Secret, and The Ancestral Footstep. The first three very directly characterize an archetype for scientists that show up throughout other works by Hawthorne. The theme of the Ancestral Footstep, which is also interwoven as a plot in the other three works, surrounds a family secret which either leads the scientist figure to the discovery of the Elixir of Life, or entitles him to an inheritance. It is significant that none of these works were ever completed -- however, all are complete and distinct stories. Hawthorne usually planned out a plot so well that he did not need more than one draft to complete a romance. He clearly struggled with the themes of these works, since he never satisfied himself with either of his four drafts. I highly recommend these works as reading material for those who enjoy Hawthorne, or those who are interested in the study of the scientist or seeker in Hawthorne's works.

This is a wonderful textbook for the practicing statistician, process engineer, or anyone who works with data on a regular basis. This book finds the right mix of statistical theory and practical applications of the statistical concepts to process troubleshooting. "Process Quality Control: Troubleshooting and Interpretation of Data" will be appropriate for a course taught to statistics majors as well as anyone in an engineering field, and it will also be a very valuable reference to anyone working in industry who is tasked with using data to make decisions about their processes.

The book is very thorough, covering everything from the basics of visualizing data (histograms, box plots, etc.) through basic DOE and SPC all the way to more sophisticated SPC concepts such as narrow-limit gauging, acceptance control charts, and cumulative sum charts. I cannot think of a topic in basic SPC that is not covered in this text. A great bonus is the CD that comes with the text that includes answers to all of the exercises and an add-in for Excel that performs Analysis of Means, making this great graphical tool for summarizing results of statistical analyses even more practical to use.

All in all, a very thorough text with many examples/case studies that would be useful to anyone in industry in charge of controlling and improving processes.

One of my prize possessions is this book, a copy of the original 1975 edition, signed by Professor Ott himself.

When I first got a job in Quality Assusrance, this was one of the books I consulted in my local college library. I soon found it was the best of the lot for its clear explanations, practical examples and sheer readability. When I came back into QA after working in another field, one of the first things I did was procure a copy of the book from a bookfinder - the 2nd hand copy I was delighted to discover also had Ott's signature!

It is great to see an updated edition is now on sale and that Ellis Ott's name is not forgotten, for he (as far as I can find out about him) is one of the unsung pioneers of Statistical Process Control. Ott is not longer with us, but the co-authors have sensibly decided to update a classic, rather than starting from scratch. The examples in the older book are as relevant today as they are then.

From what I can see, this book sticks to the philosophy of the earlier editions but has modernized its approach in some respects, especially in the notation of Experimental Design and in the use of Excel, which I also remommend as an easy-to-use PC tool. Highly recommended for practitioners of Statistical Process Control.

I recommend that this very well written text belong to every statistician who works in industry. Others such as mechanical, electrical, chemical, etc., engineers and scientists will also find this book to be a valuable reference. The book covers the breadth of useful statistical methods that industrial practitioners would likely encounter. Some topics such as implementing statistical process control, design of experiments with two or three factors, and troubleshooting with attributes and variables data are discussed extensively. Many real life examples from various industries are used throughout to illustrate the statistical concepts. All topics are well referenced enabling the reader to explore more thoroughly their areas of interest. The book also features a CD-ROM for the PC which contains datasets and solutions to practice exercises. An Excel add-in program is included for Analysis of Means [ANOM] of attributes and variables data the results of which are presented graphically.

The book is divided into three sections: Basics of Interpretation of Data, Statistical Process Control, and Troubleshooting and Process Improvement. The first section reviews many basic statistical concepts familiar to most statisticians. The second describes many facets of SPC some of which, such as Precontrol or Narrow-Limit Gauging in Process Control, the reader including myself may not be conversant, but will find useful in their own line of work. The last section describes what are probably underutilized but often very useful troubleshooting techniques. ANOM, for example, is a powerful way of analyzing data from industrial experiments with two or three factors resulting in graphics that can be used to clearly communicate conclusions to managers, to other engineers and scientists, and/or to operators on the shop floor.

I really enjoyed reading this book and am finding it to be a valuable reference to which I refer again and again.

Hank W. Altland Senior Project Engineer, Statistics Corning, Inc.

August 26, 2000

This is a complete book regarding oral surger

I think that this boog y very good, it's easy to understand, and very clear and gives information very important and useful for the clinician.

The previous edition (2nd) was recommended in "A Basic List of Recommended Books and Journals for Support of Clinical Dentistry in a Nondental Library" in Bulletin Of the Medical Library Association, July 1997.

Edward Robb Ellis' "A Diary of the Century," a 578 page book collecting selections from diaries spanning 68 years, opens with a typically stylish introduction by Pete Hamill and closes with an index, the latter being the first place I looked after acquiring this mammoth volume. Searching for familiar names, I found Elvis Presley to whom Ellis refers on page 539 in an entry dated January 8, 1993, what would have been the King of Rock and Roll's 58th birthday: "Elvis Presley stamps went on sale today, much to my disgust. Years ago, when he was being discharged from the army, I was one of many reporters interviewing him. I remember asking him how he could justify his enormous wealth when school teachers were being underpaid. He gave me a non-answer with a smile and extreme politeness."

That little passage suggests that, though he may be an excellent diarist, Ellis must have been a lousy reporter, one completely lacking in the objectivity supposedly required by the

profession. If Elvis had had access to Ellis' diary, he might have answered Ellis' question with a question of his own: "How can YOU justify asking ME that question when you did not ask it of Grace Kelly, who not only acquired enormous wealth in her acting career, but married into more millions by bagging Prince Rainier of Monaco?"

Ellis interviewed Kelly in 1956, an experience detailed in his entry of January 11 that year. His questions to her are never more challenging than this one: "Will you see the prince today?" (p. 232) Ellis didn't ask Clark Gable's widow how her late husband justified the millions he made when school teachers were underpaid, nor did the reporter grill composer Irving Berlin on the matter either. Apparently it was alright for Kelly, Gable, and Berlin to make millions because Ellis appreciated their "talents," but Presley and rock and roll didn't pass muster with "America's Greatest Diarist," as Ellis is called on the jacket of his book, and, therefore, it was wrong for Presley to strike it rich. The question, if it was worthy of being asked at all, should have been directed at a society that values performers more than it does the teachers in whose hands our children's education is placed.

That being said, Ellis' book is a worthwhile read for anyone interested in fine writing and a purely subjective (and, as noted, sometimes hypocritical) account of life as it was lived and observed by Ellis in the 20th century.

I rec'd this book in 1997 and have relished it ever since. It's a wonderful read and gives great insight into the last 80 or so years. Ellis died in 1998, but his books leave a lasting legacy.

First rate. A good luck at the past century by a keen observer

The book is nice, you read it fast, you can't put it down before the last page, it actualy has a plot, it is a love story, it's sexy, it's nice but lets be honest: the f... parts get a wee bit in the way of the plot. Sometimes I felt like fast forwarding a few pages, to go on with the actual story. Still, it's not a bad way to spend an evening...

"Ancient Greece, the end of the fifth century BC - at the height of the Peloponnesian War. Young Orestes is a citizen of Athens, sent to Sparta as a spy. There he encounters a society of athletic, promiscuous soldiers - including the beautiful Spartan Hector. As Orestes discovers the hard dirty sex that the 'primitive' Spartans enjoy, Hector in turn finds that there's something to be said for Athens' famed erotic sophistication." - exerpt from Erotica-readers

Mr. Ellis has written a most unusual book. His thesis contends that the invention of the machine gun and the failure of the military to recognize it significance in the decades leading up to WWI, considering it useful only against tribesmen and other "primitives", led directly to the horrific slaughter of WWI and the static warefare of the trenches. He looks in depth at the military subculture of Victorian England and how it was incapable of recognizing the significance of the machine gun-and those who attempted to place the weapon into the British Army's scheme of things were sanctioned and gagged. When we finally get to the chapter on WWI it is akin to reading one of Shakespear's tragedies. The inevitability of the butchery is made all that more terrible by the knowledge that the deliberite myopia of the British and French higher command ensured that their troops used outmoded tactics against emplaced German forces and their Maxim guns. The author gives one case where two German machine guns annihilated a six-hundred man British infantry battalion in the space of a couple of hours with no casulties sustained by the Germans. In other words six German soldiers killed and wounded hundreds. The final chapter covers the years following WWI as well as the role of the weapon in movies of all things. Some might disagree with Mr. Ellis, that the invention of one device could be responsible for such sweeping changes in both social and military circles is unrealistic, but Mr. Ellis presents a very skillfull work that states just that. If you are looking for a technical history of the machine gun then this book isn't for you, but if you are curious about the impact that the industrial revolution has made on humanity then this book will be a fascinating read.

This is a unique book. John Ellis has written more than a technical history of the machine guns, a weapon which has really revolutionized the battlefields and the military world. Mr. Ellis tells us a story about the resilience of customs, practices and traditions, in spite of the fact that the material reality that once enabled these customs and practices to thrive have already gone away. The 19th Century's officers and commanders were accustomed to thinking in terms of human intrepidity and courage as the most important attributes to carry the day in the battlefields. Machine guns were the first specific application of the technique and logic of the industrial revolution in military combat. Firing an inordinate stream of bullets, machine guns came to be the definitive symbols of the machine age in military history, regardless of marksmanship or easy targets. Nevertheless, ingrained beliefs die hard. The militaries in all major powers continued to cling to the idea of the irreplaceability of the infantry and cavalry charges, with bayonets, swords and lances, as the final judge of victory or defeat in military matters. In this sad tale about the final triumph of the material conditions against an ideal and constructed world, there would not be any place for happy endings. Archaic tactics and a longing for offensives, on the one hand, plus the continued production of more powerful and improved machine guns, on the other, set the backdrop for the appalling bloodbaths of the First World War, like Gallipoli, Verdun and the Somme. This is a book that will please not only social scientists or scholars, but also anyone with an interest in this topic (First World War, military matters and gun history) with a sophisticated taste for reading and studying. It is important to mention also the dozens of wonderful pictures and drawings that illustrates all the book, which give the reader enhanced pleasure.

As Edward Robb Ellis was writing his diary I was being born. I've often wondered what my pre-though, pre-war life was like now I know. Through the eyes of one man who's life mirrored, yet preceded, my own 30 years later. I wonder, in 1998, is ERE still alive. I hope so!!

This book was well-written and easily read -- not a dry, pedantic non-fiction tome as so many history books can be. Until about 2/3 of the way through, Ellis did an excellent job of keeping his personal politics out of the mix and just telling the events in a compelling and interesting manner. One most gets an inkling of his inner leanings when it comes to the "battle" between the proletariat and the bourgeosie. It's easy enough to find accounts of what went on on the battlefields of the War, but I was thrilled when I finally found one that described what life was like at home! Thumbs up!