Overall, this and the second volume combined do well to cover the major topics of evolutionary computation. Unfortunately, the IOP (the publisher) is not very good making the books (especially the first volume) available. I used both volumes for a course I teach in evolutionary computation. I am one week from the end of the semester, and most of my students received volume 2, but are STILL waiting for volume 1.

By the way, the contents of this book are available online (and free) at the IOP website, which I did not find out until the semester began.

The first volume provides a very broad coverage of the "evolutionary" literature. Reading this first volume will probably save you a lot of time. The evolutionary literature actually becomes quite large these days. The focus of this first volume is on broad coverage, not details although some chapters are already quite advanced.

If you need a fast coverage of the literature in evolutionary computation, this is the book. Pointers to all decisive contributions to the field are there. Reading from cover to cover might be difficult if the purpose is to introduce one to the field, but this is certainly the reference i would suggest to students and researchers new in this field. Each chapter is self-contained and references to the most important works for each chapter is provided at the end of the chapter.

Volume I provided the general theory of evolutionary computation. This second volume on the other hand aims at introducing the reader to more practical aspects of evolutionary computation.

While i found the first volume great, this second volume lacked the details that are required to provide an intuition of the working of advanced evolutionary techniques. I feel that "How to solve it" by Michalewicz and Fogel and "Genetic algorithms + data structures = evolution programs" by Michalewicz both provide this experience useful to implement evolutionary techniques, by not trying to trade-off pages for understandability.

I would not recommend this book because it tries to introduce advanced aspects that are too difficult to cover in a single chapter each. If you really want to understand the practice of evolutionary techniques, you need a good intuition of how the various operators and structures work on real problems, just reading a few pages will not do the job.

Honestly, I did not read it. I look forward to have it. I gave the book five star according my evaluation to the Volume 1 and my respect to David B. Fogel.

When I started training in Family practice I searched for a large reference book to study from. I choose this text because it was written so well. The Language is direct, the explanations are clear and the advice is well founded. Now that I am in training the book is not as helpful as I hoped. Most of the time I find the treatment on any given topic too shallow for what I have to learn. I belive this is the result of a compromise between size and completness. I now wish I had saved my money and bought three textbooks - Harrison, Williams and Nelson as opposed to trying to find one book to cover all of internal medicine, obstetrics, and pediatrics.

This book is designed in a practical and understandable approach to family practice. It is an excellent text and a comprehensive reference especially useful for a nurse practitioner/graduate student in family practice. Not only does it provide treatment and management of common medical conditions but also includes psychosocial aspects of caring for clients and their families.

I thought that this book was an excellent resource for people researching the roots of humankind. The only problem with it that I had was that it tended to give different facts in different parts of the book. For example, in one part it said that it was proven that Neanderthals buried their dead with ibex horns, or cave bear skulls and therefore had a religion and believed in an afterlife, but in other parts it stated that the ibex horns were just thrown in the general area of the burial and that the cave bear skulls were the result of several generations of cave bears living in the cave and dying out before the Neanderthals moved in. I thought it was a good read, but in some places controversial and confusing. If you're into prehistory and evolution, I wouldn't be without this volume. I would actually give it 4 1/2 stars.

The book has a lot of information on the scientific research done in the escavations of ancient hominides;our ancestors and the only clue to the finding of the "missing link".The book shows the different sites of the discoveries,hominides like "homo habilis" and "astrolophitecus".A very fine book for the antrophology "conosseur" and enthusiast.

Thomas Bernhard is a wonderfully engaging author, although at first glance, a depressive. He is (or was - he died in 1989) Austrian, and this unusual autobiography is written in one long go - there are no chapters or even paragraphs! It is hard going at first, until you suddenly click into Bernhard's point of view, which is a grim, often tragic take, and some readers might consider his remarks on life, death, marriage, education (especially in Austria!) to be offensive. But since he is a master of irony, his life's sad and terrible situations do become very funny. At the age of 18, he was hospitalised with pneumonia, and since the doctors thought he was going to die, he was put in a ward amongst the old and chronically ill, what he called the 'death' ward. Upon his recovery, he wasn't moved to another ward - the doctors, he said, seemed affronted that he hadn't 'gone under' as expected! On the daily round, he recounts how they grew progressively ruder, as his health improved. To Bernhard, doctors are marginally more criminal than teachers, but the greatest crime is that of parents who thoughtlessly "bring new human beings into the world," and then try to bring them up, in even more thoughtless ways. He went to a Catholic boarding-school until 1938,the year of the Anschluss, when of course it became a National Socialist school overnight - the great thing he writes is that there was no discernible difference - the brutally cruel school routine went on just the same, except there were different uniforms, beliefs, songs & decor!! Later, trapped in a sanatorium with TB, he discovers books, and they "became my best and most intimate friends," thus the act of reading became a decisive factor in his life, for he saw that literature could be applied to life, "as a form of higher mathematics." (not entirely sure that makes sense out of context - he's immensely quotable, but in chunks rather than odd lines). It's a very good translation, but as already said, it's not an easy read - apparently, in Austrian German, it reads as a marvellously-poetic prose; even so, for English readers, it's well worth persevering with the life-story of this saturnine character. I found a second-hand copy of this book, which is out of print, and was so impressed I've bought two more (new, from Amazon!)by Bernhard, "Wittgenstein's Nephew" and "The Voice Imitators."

The version I read was in three parts and each part was like a whole so there was a fair bit of repetition. If that wasn't the case the book would get 5 stars as the man is clearly an inspired writer with an almost perfectly free intellect (much to the horror of Germans, Austrians, organised religions and the medical profession amongst others). Like JG Ballard he opens one's mind up to ideas that one would never have dared to dream of. Best of all, despite it all (his life was quite depressing due to growing up in Nazi Germany and contracting TB) he's very funny. Makes you feel that with humour you're safe from everything.

It is a wonderful idea to make available recordings of great speeches. I hope we have more of this in the future.
In the case of older speeches, the selection is very good, considering the restraints of time, and the readers are uniformly excellent.
As for the modern speeches, it is a marvel of technology that we can hear these speeches as delivered. It is incredible that we can hear the voice of William Jennings Bryan. I can listen to Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" a thousand times and never tire of it! How I wish I could listen to the voice of Patrick Henry! But this selection is too heavily weighted to the modern, and many of those do not deserve billing as the GREATEST speeches of ALL TIME. Also, some of the modern speeches which are included are abridged, e.g. Reagan is cut off in the middle of a sentence, while lengthy and undeserving speeches are played out in their entirety.
Also, with only a few exceptions, the selection is almost entirely American. It is hard to understand why Jimmy Carter's lengthy speech on energy policy is included, while Pericles' funeral oration is not; or why only a small portion of a single Winston Churchill speech is included; why while Bill Clinton's complete 1993 pulpit address, in excess of 20 minutes, is included.
It would be helpful if the complete list of speeches were available to online buyers, as it would be to shoppers in a brick and mortar store.

I have listened to this collection twice now, both times with pleasure. Hearing the acutal voices of Amelia Earhart, Rev. Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill and Neil Armstrong made a deeper connection than simply reading their words. The collection showcases different subjects and many times contrasts opposing viewpoints of the ideas. This volume is a fantastic introduction to the moving ideals and sometimes sad truths that have influenced Western Civilization.

The book covers most of the basics, but it is poorly illustrated and doesn't deal with any of the more modern advancements in CNC technology.

Recommended- P Smid, CNC Programming Handbook

This is a very useful book for me, reading and understanding its content I learn and improve my knowledge on the principles of C.N.C programming, machining, machine design and the definitons of the different axis and motion and how and wy are designed.It includes examples, drawings, and tools, inserts,carbide grades, cutting and feeds rates technical data and is very friendly

In his final book, David Chandler attempts the impressive feat of rewriting a small part of Revolutionary War history. His style is very popular, and frequently fleshes out details to make them more real for the reader. His thesis -- that Meriwether Lewis (of the Lewis & Clark expedition) was murdered in a conspircy that involved several great men, is necessarily stitched together with facts abetted by circumstantial evidence and conjecture.

It's hard not to like the spirit of the book. it's also hard to ignore that much of the author's case is undocumented and only partially substantiated by footnotes and specific historical detail. What he proposes may very well be correct. Certainly there's enough other interesting information here to make the read worthwhile. (His information on the details of period life is fascinating, like the informal early days of the White House.) One only wishes that the author would have had a chance to buttress is arguments.

One wonders why Meriweather Lewis is buried in a forlorn grave, out of public's sight, just off the Natchez Trace Parkway south of Nashville instead of Arlington Cemetary. Lewis was the John Glenn (the astronaut) of his day! Chandler, the author, broke historical ground in pulling together the intrigues of an intriguing era. The author persuasively shows the possible motives several powerful men may have had in quietly disposing of Lewis. It is significant that the only mention of Lewis being prone to melancholy (suicidal) was a statement by Jefferson. Great reading: International intrigue (Spain), a corrupt General of the Army (Wilkinson), frontier murder, and retired President concerned about his public legacy.

This Book explains the life of Thomas Jefferson. It starts out explaining how his father died when he was very young, leaving him the man of the house and with a lot of responsibilities. The book also explains how Jefferson always loved reading and decided that it would be good to go to college for law. He was the person who wrote the declaration of independence and was the secretary of state for George Washington. He also served two years as president himself and established the University of Virginia. The book also tells how upset Jefferson was when he lost his wife and daughter.
I liked this book because it told about Jefferson's life in a way that wouldn't bore children. It was really colorful and it was fairly easy to read. It is a book that children could pick up and really get into where as other biographies might just be boring and something children would only read when they had too.
I think that the message this author is trying to send out is just what an important person Jefferson was. It seems that he really wants children to be able to get into books with biographical context and not find the subject to be dull and boring. The book also has the pictures that really jump out at you which children really love.

Adler does a superb job in the "A Picture book of..." series. The book has lots of biographical information but presented in such a manner that young students will not be bored. Great illustrations on each page give little ones lots to look at while listening. The book concludes with a timeline of important dates. Good resource material for grades K-3 as an initial introduction to key people in US history.

Paperback with flimsy paper that doesn't stand up to much wear. Our copy is dog-eared and the back cover is ripped off and that didn't take long.

There is one page per letter with a photo from the televison show depicting the theme of that letter (not a hand drawn or computer generated illustration or cartoon). For example: A is for all aboard and the photo is of Thomas stopped at a station. The photos are great. Every page has one sentence at the bottom that uses the word in context. I do have a complaint that each letter is only shown in the upper case. Despite much room available on the page, when the word is spelled out the first letter is in tiny font just like the rest of the letters. I would prefer if the presenting letter were a larger font to highlight its' use in the word. I was hoping to use this book as a way to teach the letters to my son and this is why I am critical of these factors.

With that said, any little Thomas the Tank Engine lover will absolutely love this book.

Some of the words are a stretch or strange (T is for tracks but then the photo shows Terence the tractor and the sentence is "Terence tells Thomas about his tracks". Why not use T for Thomas (the one word the children are most familiar with), or else use Terence as he is pictured, or just say that T is for Thomas, AND Terence, AND Tracks?

This book has gotten us through some long car trips and air flights.

With all my little criticisms, I feel Iit's low cost justifies its purchase and replacement when it wears out.

Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends from the Island of Sodor introduce ABC's to children. An excellent picture book that is perfect for pre-readers. A must have for any young Thomas fan! Purchase two as it is destined to become "well-loved".