error Books

This incorporates the Arabic text, a translation and scholarly introduction to what is probably Al-Ghazali's single most significant text, a precursor, and in some ways an antidote, to Descartes's Meditations. Al-Ghazali shows that neither our own sense-experience nor deductive reason is enough to ground even our ordinary beliefs. Nor can we simply rely on what we were ourselves taught in infancy. We know what it is like to wake up from dreaming: perhaps one day we shall wake even from what we now think the waking world. His answer to scepticism is to point out that we do, properly, rely on testimony and even on supra-rational insight even to live seemingly successful lives in this world, but he also retains the truth in the sceptical challenge: that we may wake up. We shouldn't dismiss prophetic testimony on the efficacy of proper ritual even when we don't ourselves understand why it should work: after all, we don't have a complete 'scientific' understanding of why anything should work, even the most ordinary medical cures. Global scepticism is a form of depression, from which we may be saved without any merit on our part, but we also need to unravel the sceptical arguments of philosophers, or their other dangerous errors. The most important moral that he draws is that even people who are thoroughly mistaken on most things may still have true things to say: we should assess what they say, independently of their character or sect, and answer their arguments on their own terms. It's an important philosophical document, and one from which even non-philosophers can learn.

I had been looking for this book as it was written many years ago and published in my Dad's bindery. I was excited to find a copy of the book, And while I am no longer in the error coin hobby, Would recomend the book for the detailed info and multitude of photos

Edited by Maria Fernandez, Faith Wilding and Michelle M. Wright, "Domain Errors! Cyberfeminist Practices" is a provocative collection of essays, poems and art works that thoughtfully analyzes technology's impact on women and suggests possibilities for radical change. The book is a project of subRosa, an organization that is dedicated to articulating a sophisticated cyberfeminist critique of society.

The book is divided into three sections.

"Racism and Cyberfeminism in the Integrated Circuit" contains seven articles that pertain to the social relations of the Internet. Maria Fernandez and Faith Wilding contend that cyberfeminists must challenge and subvert power in order to privilege people over centrally-controlled systems of technological production. Maria Fernandez demonstrates how racism persists in online culture and highlights the necessity of addressing the problem in the offline world. Michelle M. Wright connects Hegelian thought with mainstream culture's tendency to minimize the contributions of minorities to our intellectual heritage. Other thoughtful essays in this section include Lisa Nakamura's insightful discussion of the racial dynamics displayed in the movie "The Matrix"; Irina Aristarkhova's personal account of Russian imperialism and the concept of otherliness; Susanna Paasonen's critique of corporate websites and their false representations of female empowerment; and Rhadika Gajjala and Annapurna Mamidipudi's musings on how women from the global South might gain real power (and not be coopted) by joining online communities.

"The Female Flesh Commodities Lab" contains eleven pieces that examines biotechnology and other related sciences of the body. Lucia Sommer ponders how to represent reality within the context of an increasingly commodified culture that is seduced by biotechnology. subRosa's article on assitive reproductive technologies (ART) critiques the industry's profiteering from the biological control of women's bodies. Faith Wilding discusses the problematic relationship of medicine with women's sexuality and compares ancient genital mutilation with modern plastic surgery. Emily de Araujo and Lucia Sommer provide a brief history of eugenics in the U.S. and connects it with the growth of today's biotechnology industry. Other articles include Lucia Sommer's Marxist-inspired analysis of globalized capital's ongoing exploitation of age, race, gender and class; Pattie Bell Hasting's clever piece comparing mothering functions with computerese; subRosa's guide to conducting a college-level workshop that critiques art, biotechnology and eugenics; Amelia Jones' highly personal chronicle of her mental and emotional struggles with infertility treatments; Christina Hung's lessons on female empowerment achieved through alternative healing; Tania Kupczak's exploration of how ART has created new opportunities for gay and lesbian households to form families; and a short poem by Lucia Sommer.

"Research! Action! Embodiment! Conviviality!" contains eight articles that provide examples of how women might challenge the status quo and take action to create a more liveable world. Terri Kapsalis suggests that the designer doll industry may be preparing a new generation of girls for the marketing of designer babies as adults and imagines ways to contest the false promise of attaining predisposed personality traits through genetic engineering. Other articles indlude Irina Aristarkhova's chronicles of the struggle to create a distinctly feminist art in Singapore; Nell Tenhaaf's discussion of interactive art; Maria Fernandez' insightful interview with an alternative healing practicioner; Hyla Willis' ad-jam of the ART industry; a rant by Faith Wilding; an impressive history of subRosa's education and activism efforts from its founding in 1998 to 2003; and subRosa's manifesto for creating social spaces that are conducive to interdependent thought and action.

I highly recommend this book to everyone.

I had the chance to meet John Egan, the author of this book, on a couple of occasions, and would not have ever heard of it if it weren't for that. Armed with only my curiosity, I purchased a copy and found an interesting story that I had never heard mentioned before. The book is about Thomas Egan, a homesteader who is accused of murdering his wife. We follow his trial, gruesome execution, and the eventual clearing of all charges against him.

The author employs a writing style that is not exactly academic, though the information is conveyed clearly enough. There is a lot of somewhat frustrating attempts by the author to know what is impossible to know. He often tries to suggest what Egan may have been thinking at a particular time, or the reactions of his neighbors, or even the way the accused may have looked at someone. There is no evidence for any of these things, and the need of the author to try to surmise them takes the reader off track. There is plenty of evidence about why Egan did not commit the murder, though the most important pieces are not introduced until the end of the story. In that way, the book plays out more like a mystery novel than an academic study. That is not necessarily a bad thing, however. It just means that the book must be read in a different way.

By the conclusion, it is easy enough to see that Egan is in fact innocent, and that a person suffered a grotesque death (you'll have to read the story to see exactly what happened--I found it to be a shocking indicment of the competence of the executioners, or possibly even Divine Intervention, if one is inclined to be believe in that sort of thing) who did not deserve that type of fate. Some large questions are asked about prejudice and the justice of the death penalty. This short book packs quite a punch when all is said and done. I admit that through the first half of it, I did not feel much sympathy for Thomas Egan, but by the time the second shoe drops, it is clear that a massive miscarriage of justice has occurred. These are the types of stories that must not be forgotten. They must be told so future generations do not make the same mistakes that their predecessors did. Congratulations to John Egan for having the perseverance to tell this one.

This book was pretty good and I loved the characters. It got a little boring at about the middle but then got better. I basicly enjoyed it.

As the author, I am proud, yet sad, to say that it is now out of print. Sorry! But you can order other books from us. Send a snail mail request to Weidner & Sons Publishing, P.O. Box 2178 Riverton, NJ 08077. Or E-mail: jim.weidner@radiowave.com

This treatment of error analysis is brillianty tied into everyday measurement examples. The mathematics is not beyond the A-level (UK) or high school graduate. If experimental results are your day to day fare then this is the book for you.

"Fatal Error" is a thriller built up in a rather special way.

Part 1 (chapters 1 and 2) takes place in London in Sept. 1999. An unknown assailant kills the chairman of the dot-com startup company featured in the story.

Part 2 (chapters 3 - 23) takes place in France (July 1987), Scotland (June 1992) and London (April - Aug. 1999). In other words, this part of the book consists of flashbacks that provide background information for what happened in Part 1. But the 1987 and 1992 flashbacks are interwoven with the 1999 flashbacks, so you are kept on your toes all the time. As expected (this is a thriller), a dead body turned up in both 1987 and 1992, and in neither case was the killer identified, let alone apprehended.

Part 3 and Part 4 (chapters 24 - 40) take up the story where Part 1 ended, i.e., London, Sept. 1999. Is the new killing related to the killings in 1987 and 1992? Who is sending the anonymous threatening e-mails? Will there be more killings?

The fact that almost half of the book consists of flashbacks and that the flashbacks are not presented chronologically actually heightens the excitement. However, I did find myself compelled to go back and reread Part 1 after finishing Part 2 in order to reestablish the flow of recent events in my mind.

The story is based in the heady dot-com entrepreneurial days in the late 1990's. New companies are going from zero to a stock market valuation of billions of pounds in the space of a year or so. The youthful employees are becoming millionaires and the bosses are willing to do whatever it takes to crush the competition and get a successful IPO (Initial Public Offering, i.e., getting on the stock market).

Note, however, that although "Fatal Error" is a story based on the building up of an Internet company, that the technology aspects are not the most important. Similarly, even though the financial implications of starting a company and getting venture capital financing and going to the stock market are important sides of the story, they are not the most important factors.

Instead, "Fatal Error" is basically a traditional thriller about a psychopath who has killed and is willing to kill again, and the danger this person represents to the people around him/her.

I found the book quite intriguing and enjoyable, especially due to my own background in the IT business. Surprisingly, I did not find any errors in the author's descriptions of how IT companies function and how web sites are built up. The discussions of the financial aspects also sounded correct to me, and they should be since the author has a background at an international bank in the City of London. This added to the overall credibility of the whole story.

In addition, the characters in the book seemed quite believable, with perhaps one exception. Incidentally, the story is told in the first person, but it is very well done so you hardly notice this normally problematic style.

My only major complaint is that the ending seemed too contrived. Were it not for that I'd be giving five stars to "Fatal Error".

A highly recommended thriller, especially if you're interested in the IT business and/or the financial markets.

Rennie Petersen

From the last years of the Soviet Union [wouldn't this phrased have seemed like science fiction before then?] comes this book about cryptography. The Soviets never had the best computers like the Americans. But they had very good mathematicians, and the theory of cryptography was highly developed. Goppa explores one aspect. The intersection between geometry and coding. This includes looking at algebraic curves, and finding singular points of such a given curve.

The concept of an irreducible curve is defined and explored.

Note that the discussion is at a fairly abstract level. To go from the narrative to writing a cryptosystem would entail a lot more work.

This book is an interesting collection of 'Blunders, stuff-ups and misjudgements' made over the course of white settlement in Australia, by some prominant academics. Covering areas as diverse as farming, black/white relations, town planning, defence and politics amoung others, it offers an interesting and thought provoking journey through many of the major decision in Australian history.

This book succeeds in providing an insight into those events that made Australia the country it is today, without taking a revisionist view, based on 21st centuary morals and ideals. They explain many of the actions taken, without necessarily judging them.

An interesting and worthwhile read.