Open Books

I found this text to be well presented and easy to read. The case for collaboration between health and social care agenncies was well put forward. The focus upon partnership between service providers and users provides a useful resources for social workers attempting to adhere to anti-discriminatory principles.

I've just finished reading this book for a second time and it's struck me even harder that its almost criminal that Crystal Spirit is not more widely known.

It has a gripping narrative that held me from first page to last, and the second half is full of memorable scenes of the Spanish Civil War.

As a specialist historian of this conflict it was clear to me that Granelli had obviously done a tremendous amount of research, which is magically brought to life on the page in near flawless detail. There is little of the polemicising that often blights other treatments of the same subject matter, but the novel is not politically inert and apologists for the Nationalist regime will find little to reassure them here.

Granelli pulls off a difficult balancing act; producing an easily readable, driving narrative that rattles along with the locomotive momentum of a Dan Brown blockbuster but with the literary intelligence of a far more accomplished writer. For me, he achieves the ultimate success of a book well-written and accessible.

For those who know little or nothing about this obscure period of European history, which in many ways sowed the seeds nurtured by subsequent conflicts in Europe and which flowered in the cold war of the sixties and seventies, Crystal Spirit could also serve as a valuable précis as the central character, David Hicks, is present of all the major battle fronts. The first section - set in a Welsh valley in the 1930's - is also sharply defined, a sort of a matured, literary version of How Green Was My Valley. Ultimately, the books moves to a very satisfying and moving climax, managing to convey great sentiment without sentimentality.

I doubt that the book has sold many copies because I only found it by accident, but it deserves far wider distribution. I recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone interested in good literature.

With the current vogue for "modern political/historical" movies such as "Enemy at the Gates" it seems a shame that some enterprising mogul hasn't optioned it...

Zahar has written the most mathematically detailed historial analysis of some physicists' ideas that I have read. It is a reliable guide to works that still remain untranslated, such as Lorentz's 1895 Versuch.

Zahar's book is very reliable and thought provoking in its own right. One thought he provoked, in this reader, (although Zahar would not agree with this) is that the current state of crisis and non-progress that physics has been in since the development of the electroweak theory is partly stymied by young physicists working on string theory (and before that, supergravity 8). We would not need string theory if had chosen Lorentz instead of Einstein, which the EPR experiments [Aspect et al, 1982] indicate would have been the correct chose, and if we had chosen de Broglie's realist interpretatio of QM instead of the Bohr, Heisenberg Born, etc, "Cophenhagen Interpretation".


This arose because physicists chose Einstein's 1905.

Aside. [(Penrose, 2004) notes that it is really Minkowski [1908] and Poincare in outline (1905) that developed what we call "the special theory of relativity". What physicists mean by this phrase is Minkowski's 1908 article; the formulation of a 4D spacetime with an "absolute" distance function ds, which is a solution of Einstein's field equations in his general relativity.

The real point is that physicists choose the positivistism of Minkowski [1908] rather than the scientific realism of Lorentz (especially [1982 -1909].
But with Einstein's [1916] GTR he took over as the leading relativist; and then quantum physicists let themselves be persuaded om the next decade by Bohr and Paul in 1926-1928 to reject scientific realism and accept positivism. E.g., both Heseinberg and de Broglie were realists, before Bohr got to Heisenberg and Pauli got to de Broglie.

The realist most viable was de Broglie, but Pauli persuaded him with some questionably sound arguments to become an anti-realists like the rest of the Copenhagen camp. This has led to the impasse of the last 30 or more years.

Relativist quantum field theory, which in its standard form contains Minkowski spacetime and a Copenhagen interpretation of QM, is incostent with both General Relativity and Quantum Non-Locality (for Lorenz invariance and Minkoski spacetime cannot really exist if there is an absolute non-local frame). This motivated such speculations as string theory or loop quantum gravity.

General relativity is the causally determinist, and local, relativity theory that physicists accept. But if general relativity is true, quantum field theory is not, and vice versa. Why? Because standard QFT implies a causal indeterminism and it accurately predicts events at subatomic levels but GTR cannot, making its predictions inconsistent with GTR.

But GTR implies causal determinism and that its laws govern mass-energy down to the points on the spacetime continuum.

With Lorentz and de Broglie, we would have two causally determinist theories, two theories that agreed all the way down to a continuum of spacetime points (just adopt Bohm's quasi-Newtonism of 1952, but without his realism about the uncertainty principles and speculations that "a whole new physics" applies below the Planck level). With this, there is an explanaation of both reletativist phenomena and quantum phenomena as causal effects (that we misinterpret as confirming relativitity and the Cophenhagen interpretation)) of a non-relativlist absolute frame (Lorentz), or of a non-local absolute frame that causes the quantum effects, the non-local cause being the phase S of the wave function. The two sciences would be consistent, both imply a non-local absolute frame, and they downgrade "relativy phenomena and quantum phenomenas" as results of our misinterpreting them because we cannot see their cause, in the absolute frame. One might even ponder returning to de Broglie and Lorentz and taking a different route (J.S, Bell, Anthony Valentini, David Bohm, Hiley have largely done so) and we could make some progress instead of speculating about string theories.

Having worked several congressional campaigns, most of them losers, I found it disturbing that Dr. Gaddie disected them so completely. However, his findings make a LOT of sense, and will help anybody who is interested in the electoral process understand the ins and outs of campaigning a little better.

This book makes the learning of Greek accessible to even the youngest student. My daughter is 12, my son 14 and through this curriculum they are both able to grasp the symbology and grammar of the language. We have studied Latin for four years and that has helped with the understanding of declensions and conjugations. We are moving rather quickly through the material. Younger children who are being exposed to a foreign lanquage for the first time through this curriculum should move at a slower pace and drill, drill, drill.

This is an indespensible book for everybody with an interest in critical Marxist thought. The book works the muscle

Having made a number of trips to England and read most of the travel guides, this is one of the most comprehensive I have seen.Divided into geographic regions, each section contains useful information about local events, sites of interest and personal comments, in addition to the usual information you expect in a travel guide. It covers restaurants, hotels, tours, local travel suggestions, as you would expect, in good detail, providing a wealth of information.

The writing style is easy to read and enjoyable, much like reading a novel. The language identifies the author as English in origin, a good introduction to some of the differences Americans will notice when they arrive. It would be a good companion on the flight over while planning events for arrival, as well as valuable for advance planning and reservations.

The advice on general topics at the beginning is also well written and reflects the authors personal experience with travel therefore providing practical and useful tips for both experienced and novice travelers.

The book itself is lightweight and easy to carry, although a bit thick, and arranged for easy reference. I am using it to plan my next trip, and finding that it is much easier to find my way through than others I have used.

This book was developed to introduce students, professionals and managers to the challenges of open channel flows and environmental hydraulics. After a concise introduction (Part 1), the second section (Part 2) deals with mixing and dispersion of matter in natural river systems. Part 3 presents an introduction to unsteady open channel flows, and the interactions between flowing water and its surroundings are discussed in Part 4.
Mixing and dispersion of contaminants in natural systems is developed in Part 2. Applications include release of organic and nutrient-rich wastewater into the ecosystem (eg. from treated
sewage effluent), smothering of seagrass and coral, stormwater runoff during flood events, and injection of heated water from an industrial discharge (e.g. at a cooling power plant). For example, during an accidental release of waste occurs in a streams, the water resource scientist needs to predict the arrival time of the contaminant cloud, the peak concentration of solute and the duration of the pollution. Basic theory of molecular diffusion and advection is extended to turbulent advective diffusion in channels. Gradually-varied flow calculations are developed in Part 3. First the basic equations of one-dimensional unsteady open channel flows are presented. That is, the Saint-Venant equations and the method of characteristics. Later simple applications are developed. The
propagation of waves, positive and negative surges are presented, while the dam break wave problem is discussed in the subsequent chapter. Simple numerical models are presented and explained later. There are strong interactions between turbulent water flows and the surrounding environment. Part 4 introduces the basic concepts of the transport of solids, and of the mixing of air and water at free-surfaces.
At the beginning of the book, the reader will find the table of contents, a list of symbols and a glossary of technical terms and names. After the conclusion, a detailed list of references is
presented. The last section presents a correction form. Readers who find an error or mistake are welcome to record the error on the page and to send a copy to the author. [...].

This is a very lovely book, terrifically designed for the interaction between adults and children. It seems as if it was written with alot of thought and careful consideration with the child in mind. Also, the bi-lingual slant is very important for children at an early age and it doesn't submerge them in a real bilingual education - so the child is carefully introduced to another language. There should be more books with this type of approach, TOUCHE!

Excellent photographs capturing children's wide range of emotions. Prose is simple and right for young children in both English and Spanish. Properly guided and stimulated by adults, the book helps children to explore their feelings. Excellent forum to stimulate children to talk about and own up to their own feelings.