Having spent much time myself researching the controversy over missions between the Maria Creek and LaMotte Baptist churches of the Wabash District Association, I can appreciate the amount of work Dr. Wimberly has put into this book. Dr. Wimberly does an excellent job of putting Daniel Parker's life into the context of the historical events of his time. He portrays Parker as a man shaped by his beliefs and his environment in both his political and religious life from his birth to his final years in Texas. I found this book to be informative and enjoyable reading. I was worried when I ordered the book that it would not meet my expectations because I had already read much about Parker's life and the people he came in contact with. The book, however, much exceeded my expectations.

When the average person thinks of the automobile industry, thefollowing names like Ford, General Motors, Chrysler, Honda, Toyota,Saab, etc. are likely to leap to mind. But what MIT's report points out is that the modern automobile industry is not represented just by these finished-product assemblers, but by suppliers and component craftsmen that constitute an extremely complex web that make up "the automobile industry." But the complexity of the automobile industry rests not only on the composition of the industry itself, but also the international environment within which the industry must operate. Domestic auto industries hold a special position in most countries in that most governments see the very existence of domestic auto producers as a good unto itself. For example, if a Japanese producer can engineer and produce a better widget, chances are that that producer will be able to market that product domestically and internationally with great success if widgets are not seen as a major threat to an important industry of another nation. But with automobiles (as was the case for Japanese producers in the early 1970's), the prospects for successful international competition is not so clear-cut. Automobile producers are therefore constrained not only by the forces of the market and competitors, but also by domestic and foreign governments that take a special interest in the success or failure of their firms.

Classical logic forces all actions to be described by a rigid sequence of two option rules. By applying enough such rules, it is possible to eventually reach a reasonable approximation to the problem in question. However, such a method is cumbersome at best, so in 1964, Lotfi Zadeh, a professor of electrical engineering, invented a new reasoning system base on imprecise rules. Since the values are now placed within specified ranges, the system was given the unfortunate name "fuzzy ." Eventually ignored and at times vilified by the academic community in the United States, fuzzy logic is now beginning to be widely used in commercial products.
In another instance of what seems to be the most common business theme of the decade of the '80s, it was Japanese industry that took the American ideas and made them commercially viable. Many products now incorporate fuzzy reasoning systems, with no end in sight regarding the spectrum of applications. The performance gains of fuzzy logic over other options is at times astounding.
Equally surprising is the simplicity of fuzzy reasoning. Most events in the human experience are not sharply demarcated. Night does not "fall," but slowly floats down like an aging helium balloon. Fuzzy systems mimic this by assigning a numeric value to qualifying words such as "very ," "slightly ," and "remotely ." The most common scale uses the range from zero to one inclusive. Since zero can be considered FALSE and one TRUE, classical logic is a limiting subset of fuzzy logic. For example, the phrase "very possible" could be assigned a truth value of 0.90, "slightly possible" a value of 0.05, and "remotely possible" a value of 0.005. Fuzzy OR then takes the largest value of the two variable, AND the minimum of the two and the negation is computed by taking one minus the fuzzy value.
This book introduces the basic notions of fuzziness, but concentrates more on the history as an ignored discipline and the recent commercial successes. It is amazing to learn that the vast majority of "fuzzy thinkers" are found in Asia. Comparisons between the differences in Western and Eastern philosophy are made in an attempt to explain this. For example, the Japanese language is inherently much more vague than western languages.
If you are interested in learning the first notions of fuzzy reasoning, this book is a good non-technical place to start. And if the applications continue to grow, that interest may become a required taste.

Published in Journal of Recreational Mathematics, reprinted with permission.

One of the most revealing insights of this commentary on Paul's Epistle to the Galatians is that it is not the supposed legalism of the Pharisees. Matera points out that recent archeoloigcal evidence has placed Paul's words about the Law and the application of it to the problem of circumcision of the Gentiles is not about applying the letter of the law. The Law of circumcision, sabbath observance and dietary regulations had to do with maintaining one's status as a member of the Jewish race. The imposition of circumcision in this view is the imposition of a cultural practice upon those for whom this practice has no historical, social or religious relevance. This insight opens up the concept of what evangelization means and entails. The early Jewish Christians would not be the only or the last Christian form tradition to impose cultural imperatives on people. Europeans did the same in the imperialistic invasions of the 18th and 19th centuries. The Christianity that accompnaied these incursions was strictly European and did not respect the faith of the indigent people. Paul's view then of Christ living in the Christian applied in this way creates broader boundaries for evangelization and helps missionaries to see Christ in the face of the people already there.

A comprehensive book in ophthalmology, It deals with a wide variaty of topics and have the classic Appleton and Lange format. although it contains too much information to learn in a rotation but it serves excellent as a reference.

I approached the Generations of Corning with the same trepidation I approach most "business" books, only to be pleasantly surprised by the attention to detail, the historical perspective and the technical accuracy the book offers. A great history of the Houghton family and their beginnings in and around the Chemung Valley (Corning, NY) area and their strengths in the glassmaking / R&D community coupled with detailed business / labor / process information makes this an excellent corporate biography. Particularly the detailed explanation of partnerships that led to Owens-Corning, Dow-Corning, Ciba-Corning and Siecor will be of interest to business builders. Additionally the very detailed technical info on the evolution of manufacturing and marketing of dark fiber (my personal interest when purchasing the book) proves to be just enough without being so technical as to alienate the average reader.

I would recommend this book for those reasons, great business evolution info, just enough history to validate it and enough detail in current technical areas to make it timely to the fiberoptic community.

This book is really helpful for anyone who wants to minister to GenXers or just understand them on a deeper level. "GenXers After God" defines what a GenXer actually is, his long-term needs, his viewpoints, his outlook on life, his insecurities, the kind of discipleship that would be appropriate to reach him, and the sorts of problems you might encounter if you were to disciple him, etc.... It also talks about the positive side of GenXers, their hopes, dreams, and the things they have to offer society. VERY thorough. This book is written by 2 GenXers, just to let you know. Each chapter is prefaced with a short paragraph taken from the actual diary of a GenXer (Daniel Kruidenier) who wrestles with the issues he faces in everyday life as a GenXer struggling to know God and follow His commands. (The handwritten font adds a nice touch).

This book has four articles on mathematics in quantum field theory. Some of it is well known and "classical", particularly the article by Bryant on symplectic geometry (however, Bryan does discuss the modern modern developments by Gromov in the last section). The article by Rabin attempts to do the impossible: try to teach mathematicians the physics behind quantum field theory via path integrals. The article by Alvarez on index theorems summarizes nicely the connections between supersymmetry and index theory. The last article by Quinn on topological field theory is written for the mathematician in mind. It is fascinating mathematics and gives the reader the impression that research in topological field theory will no doubt continue to grow in importance. Several advances have taken place since the book was published (1995), so peruse the literature before buying it.

The chapters in this book are written by academics from prestigious engineering colleges and universities. It is useful both for the professional, practicing engineer, and for the college student. There are references following each chapter, but no practice problems, for those looking for example calculations.

The information that is covered concerns material in the geotechincal field that applies to waste disposal practices. The majority of the information will help an engineer design a landfill. However, there is material on site invesitigation and an overview of remediation technologies.

Lots and lots of very specific ideas for disipline and behavior issues. Short sections easy to refer to when you need a quick idea. Covers everything from Potty training to Bedtime to Manners to Friends. Another great book like this one is: Perfect Parenting, The Dictionary of 1000 Parenting Tips by Elizabeth Pantley