Package X, 1990 : Informational Copies of Federal Tax Forms/Stk No. 648-004-00006-1

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A worst-of

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Complete Crumb: Season of the Snoid Vol. 13
Robert Crumb
Manufacturer: Fantagraphics Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books
General | Graphic Novels | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books
Fantagraphics | Publishers | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1560973137

Customer Reviews:

A worst-of.......2000-03-29

It's hard to explain, but this is a real worst-of in this series. Owners of the R. Crumb "Coffee Table Art Book" will find almost no new comix here, and everyone else save for the die-hard Crumb addicts will be brutally let down: the cartoon selections are poor and the majority of the book is comprised of illustrations for everything from jazz records -- admittedly quite nice, but -- to useless filler like covers from alternative newspapers. Total reading time: fifteen minutes. Buy this only if you suffer from the mania that compels you to complete a set, or similar.

Read this book.......1999-07-18

The continuing underground comix by R. Crumb. Featuring the introduction of the Snoid and his classic "My Troubles With Women".

Book Description

Arranged by professional name, the entries include birth and death dates, the place of birth and death, real name when different from professional, married name for women, birth certificate date when available, age, and bibliographic data of an autobiography or biography. When available the cause of death is also provided.

Customer Reviews:

A Wealth of Information!.......1999-10-05

What a great book! All the people I'm familiar with and thousands I'm not. A fascinating look at the marvelous talent of the silent era! A great reference book and more.

competing silent film necrology complements Doyle book.......1999-02-28

This is another book that is indispensable for anyone writing on the subject of silents. Has birth dates and death dates for players, as well as cause of death and other info where available. Highly recommended; fascinating!

Book Description

In today's world of rapid technological changes, science and technology play a key role in the development of a nation, in improving standards of living, and in advancing industrial growth. Combining a wide range of perspectives--from sociology, history, economics, and political science--this volume explores the constitution and growth of scientific communities and the current state of scientific potential in a wide range of developing countries. The African, Asian, and Latin American case studies shed light on a variety of fundamental issues of direct relevance to developing nations. The issues discussed include the colonial and postcolonial experiences of the countries studied; the role played by key actors like state and scientific elites; the influence of differing political systems on the growth of science and technology; and the reasons why, despite comparable approaches to developing science and technology, the resulting progress varies dramatically across countries. Providing a truly comparative perspective on a theme of central importance to developing countries, this volume will attract a wide readership among scholars and professionals in the fields of sociology, economics, history, science and technology studies, science communication and education, development studies, policy studies, and the social study of science.

Book Description

To properly equip the outdoor enthusiast, here are the best recipes for eating on the trail and around the campfire. From simply delicious breakfasts to "to-die-for" desserts, Dian Thomas shows readers how to creatively meet the challenge of cooking fun flavorful meals in the great out-of-doors.

Readers will learn to how to pack for, prepare, and cook mouthwatering, crowd-pleasing easy-to-fix meals using portable gas stoves, barbecue grills and Dutch ovens. Includes over 100 recipes and 50 photos of the best camp breakfasts, quick-and-easy lunches and tasty dinners.

Novices will appreciate tips on packing food for camping, creating a portable pantry, and cooking one-pot meals. Experienced campers will relish Dian's favorite ideas for novelty cooking--like cooking a chicken in a backpack while hiking, or making ice cream in the woods!

Customer Reviews:

Not just holiday fun--year round fun with this terrific book.......1997-09-24

Dian Thomas shows you simple tips to take your holiday and other celebrations from mundane to marvelous. Most of the materials you need to make those special days even more memorable are right in your home already. None of the projects are difficult. Most can be done by or with your children. Even better many of them require almost no more time or effort than you would normally put into holiday cooking or decorating! I showed this to book to a Christmas party committee and there was a fight to see who could borrow it first---they all loved the ideas. If you are starting a craft library or have young children (and like me no creative mind) this is the book to start with.

Book Description

The intensive search for a more secure operating system has often left everyday, production computers far behind their experimental, research cousins. Now SELinux (Security Enhanced Linux) dramatically changes this. This best-known and most respected security-related extension to Linux embodies the key advances of the security field. Better yet, SELinux is available in widespread and popular distributions of the Linux operating system--including for Debian, Fedora, Gentoo, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and SUSE--all of it free and open source. SELinux emerged from research by the National Security Agency and implements classic strong-security measures such as role-based access controls, mandatory access controls, and fine-grained transitions and privilege escalation following the principle of least privilege. It compensates for the inevitable buffer overflows and other weaknesses in applications by isolating them and preventing flaws in one application from spreading to others. The scenarios that cause the most cyber-damage these days--when someone gets a toe-hold on a computer through a vulnerability in a local networked application, such as a Web server, and parlays that toe-hold into pervasive control over the computer system--are prevented on a properly administered SELinux system. The key, of course, lies in the words "properly administered." A system administrator for SELinux needs a wide range of knowledge, such as the principles behind the system, how to assign different privileges to different groups of users, how to change policies to accommodate new software, and how to log and track what is going on. And this is where SELinux is invaluable. Author Bill McCarty, a security consultant who has briefed numerous government agencies, incorporates his intensive research into SELinux into this small but information-packed book. Topics include:

A readable and concrete explanation of SELinux concepts and the SELinux security model
Installation instructions for numerous distributions
Basic system and user administration
A detailed dissection of the SELinux policy language
Examples and guidelines for altering and adding policies

With SELinux, a high-security computer is within reach of any system administrator. If you want an effective means of securing your Linux system--and who doesn't?--this book provides the means.

Customer Reviews:

Quite short.......2007-07-17

Really only skimming over the problem, could be more in depth, since most online documentation about SELinux is really skimming over the subject too, or just overly dated.

Good Introduction but lacks advanced, how-to information........2005-04-08

Personally, I prefer books to focus either concepts or detailed implementation instructions not both. For complex topics like SELinux, you typically cannot fit the conceptual and pragmatic within one book. McCarty's SELINUX is no exception. SELINUX provides an excellent overview of concepts but struggles with policy implementation methods and procedures. I suspect the topic is simply too large for one volume. What implementation advice presented is clear and concise but you will have to search elsewhere for more detailed deployment advice.

Despite these issues, this book is recommended reading for anyone considering implementing SELinux. The conceptual overview is some of the best I've seen since SELinux got its start. Using charts, diagrams and examples, McCarty presents an excellent overview of the nuts and bolts of SELinux. Understanding the principles of Role-Based Access Control, Type Enforcement, and Security Objects is critical to both using SELinux and justifying its use. The latter may be a bigger hurdle than many anticipate. The chapters on these areas will arm you with sufficient understanding to make a clear case of why SELinux can and should be implemented in many Linux-based computing environments.

While there are brief examples throughout, the book's third chapter on SELinux installation presents a well-documented, step-by-step guide to installing SELinux. If you've never installed SELinux, these sections will prove very valuable. With clearly numbered steps and command line examples, you can have SELinux installed and configured with a default policy within an hour.

As a mix between the pragmatic and conceptual, SELINUX is a good start on this topic. Entry level SELinux users will probably not learn too much from this book, but if your are looking for a introduction to SELinux concepts along with some pragmatic advice for getting started, then this book may be for you.

vastly improved implementation.......2005-03-13

Selinux is a conscious attempt to fundamentally rework and improve linux security. Previously, or more to the point, in most current linux machines, the security was somewhat of an ad hoc approach. This is mitigated by a formidable array of open source IDS tools like Ethereal and Snort that let a sysadmin often successfully depend her network and machines.

But as the frequency and virulence of malware attacks has increased, the Selinux of this book may be a timely reinforcing of the operating system. As McCarty explains, this book is geared towards a sysadmin, as opposed to a programmer. It discusses the new things you should know. Especially the concepts of role based access model and of domains. The former has shades of DEC's VMS, which had a very mature implementation. Or those of you with mainframe experience may also recognise familiar ideas.

Programmers may find the book a little sparse, as mentioned above. But possibly McCarty is devising a sequel for them.

One of the best on creating a secure Linux system.......2005-02-06

So what makes Selinux more secure than standard Linux? Primarily it is the implementation of role-based access control, sandboxing, and an audit facility that allows the system to log any attempts to exceed specified permissions. It does all this without conflicting with the normal permissions of Linux. If you are able to access a file through normal discretionary access control then the role-based mandatory access control provides additional security to determine if you can run the file or not. The only way to open a file is if both systems agree that you should be able to open it.

The author covers installation, configuration, administering, and setting up a security policy. The presentation of SeLinux is straightforward and the security model is presented in a writing style that makes it clear and understandable to the reader.

SeLinux: NSA's Open Source Security Enhanced Linux is highly recommended as both a Linux security solution and an excellent book on how to utilize all the resources of SeLinux.

Timely, Accurate and Readable.......2004-12-21

Bill McCarty's book is all of the above and the requirements have been met for a throughly enjoyable read.

You don't have to be a Linux geek to appreciate the security mechanisms that Information Assurance Directorate of the NSA and the myriad of contributors have helped to create.

These go way beyond IT systems decisions and at their base level represent good business management practice.

The days of using insecure, bloated operating systems to power your business are over. In this age of real competitive and even terroristic threats affecting your companies data, you owe it to your self to investigate the security mechanisms put forth in this book and give your business the competitive edge.

Average customer rating:

A Collector's Guide to United States Combat Shotguns

A Collector's Guide to United States Combat Shotguns
Bruce N. Canfield
Manufacturer: Andrew Mowbray Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
Reference | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books
Military Science | History | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0917218531

Book Description

From the earliest examples up to the Gulf War and beyond. The most stress is given to the trench guns, riot guns and training guns of WWI, WWII, Korea and Vietnam. Winchester was naturally at the forefront of combat shotgun technology, and this book covers the famous Model 1897 and Model 12 in all their variations. Illustrated with many descriptive and archival photographs and tables.

Customer Reviews:

A Collector's Guide to United States Combat Shotguns.......2000-05-28

Another extremely worthy book for the collector of US martial arms. Canfields well researched book shows almost every Shotgun used by the armed forces from the early days to the present. Not only the well known Winchester guns but also the secondary types pressed into service. The book includes closeup pictures of the markings, accessories and differences of every type. Rare photos of US soldiers, wearing shotguns in combat are included. Appendix with tables on markings and serial numbers. A highly recommended work for the collector and the historian as well.

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An Intelligent View of Authenic Learning and Culture

A glimpse into wht education is really about

People just don't get it

Let's Go Back to the 1880's - Things Were So Much Better

a generous spirit

The Culture We Deserve : A Critique of Disenlightenment
Jacques Barzun
Manufacturer: Wesleyan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | World | History | Subjects | Books
General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
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From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life 1500 to the Present

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ASIN: 0819562378

Book Description

Twelve essays exploring aspects of literacy and art criticism, retrospective sociology and the effects of relativism on moral behavior.

Customer Reviews:

An Intelligent View of Authenic Learning and Culture .......2006-07-10

Jacques Barzun'S collection of essays title THE CULTURE WE DESERVE demonstrates some of the problems in modern America. Barzun diagnoses the problems of false egalitarianism the lact of respect for serious learning. He shows that institutionalizing lack of ability and the politicalization of "education" have corroded the professions and serious culture.

One of the problems that Barzun realizes is that "experts" have incorrectly assumed that everyone is an artist whether it be writing, painting and sculpture, drama, etc. Mother Nature is not so generous. Barzun clearly sees a glut of poor art, bad drama and acting, etc. Those who suppose themselves as artists are not satisfied with local success and limited exposure. These average or less than average "artists" whine that government subsidies and taxpayer support enhance their efforts. The problem is that someone will be omitted resulting in political struggles reducing art to a lobbying program that inhibits actual art.

Such a glut in the arts results in loss of appreciation and taste. Devotees are overwhelmed by exhibitions, plays, musical performances, etc. that they never have a chance to savor bona fide art and music. The glut has reduced art to a political contest and an over production of useless work.

The problem infects historical studies. Barzun focuses on the problem that historians no longer write honest accounts based on documents. Historians have been seduced to write false accounts based on political correctness or some favored thesis. For example, Barzun comments on the fact that some argue that inventions dominate the course of events as though individual decisions do not count. For example, the Colt revolver supposedly changed the American frontier. Barzun wryly notes that some attention should be given to Sam Colt who invented the revolver. The single cause thesis comes is exposed by Barzun who is clear that historical accounts shoule be based on docuements which often deomonstrate several complex causes. In other words, documents and authenic sources reveal that study of history is more complex than politically correct narratives and single cause theories.

As for those who compare Barzun to "conservative" political figures should read the one review whereby the reviewer states clearly that Barzun was never an imperialist or a racist. His writing shows a certain charm and respect even for those with whom he disagrees.

Finally, one should note that Barzun is not a snob. Some intelletual efforts are worthy of praise,but some are not. This reviewer shares Barzun's respect for others. This reviewer admires those who are skilled in the building and construction trades. People are different, and to pretend to believe in an idealistic egalitarian society is useless and is not the way men are.

Like some of the other reviewers, this writer does not agree with all of Barzun's conclusions. Yet, Barzun is so knowledgeable and writes so well that readers would do well to his his books. THE CULTURE WE DESERVE and EDUCATION IN AMERICA are two of Barzun's books that should be read in tandam.

A glimpse into wht education is really about.......2003-12-16

Oh, I've had my disagreements with Jacques Barzun - some of what he has written about Darwin was as wrong-headed as anything I've ever read - but I've never viewed him as other than an exemplary teacher, an adherent to the highest and best values education has to offer. The one-star rating here by one reviewer is about the worst review I have read at Amazon. He has a right to his opinion; but with all due respect, he has also a right to be wrong and he is fully exercising this right here in his dismissal of this VERY fine book.

Read this book, evaluate it for yourself - it is worth the trouble.

People just don't get it.......2001-08-13

This book deserves six stars, and mainly because of people like the one-star reviewer before me. For me, a non-reader who, it turns out, was that exactly because of all those post-modern "egalitarians" of our day who write the most boring books on earth (*thinking* they can write because they can quote other, equally boring and useless "scholars" in a million footnotes).

To me these essays by Barzun were nothing new. The tune was similar to that of "Begin Here" and "From Dawn to Decadence," which is, he said it as it really is. College has deteriorated to some hippie gathering; the government tries its best to dumb down everyone to achieve some perverted condition of equality by imposing more stupid legislation while refusing to rely on reason; and there are all the trainspotters out there who think that by specialising in one "extracurricular" thing they deserve to be called intellectuals and Renaissance men.

One does not have to agree with everything Barzun says, but he clearly espouses the use of rational mind in this age of TV and anti-everything protests. He speaks of enjoying things because they are good and deservedly so. He advises on thinking as a pleasure, reading as a pleasure, savouring creations of art because it is good, not "original." He approves of earned inequality: if one is more skilful, experienced, learned, or simply more intelligent, it is only natural for these individuals to be respected for what they have achieved. Democratising everything is a crime against humanity because it holds back the best of the best. No wonder he had to call the book "The Culture We Deserve"--because of this deliberate and myopic levelling.

If my esteemed opponent had read these essays with more care rather than his bias by default (I'm sure you hated the book before opening it), he would have noticed that Barzun does not approve of racism or imperialism. Barzun is a historian first and foremost, and he is simply recording the story of the Western civilisation. Simply because he is not being ideological, prescriptive, and normative but rather a man of strong and well-founded opinions, who can also write exquisitely, it does not mean he is wrong. Just because you were of the Gore- or Nader-voting herd with little critical ability and esteem for individual talent, there is no need to compare him to George W. Bush.

Barzun is right in his view of this age as decadent (and he does not make a judgement of this state of affairs, please note), and in that the cause for that is the massive drive to emancipate and to return to primitivism. This century has produced few great figures in history except for populist and militant dictators who have been able to manipulate faceless masses. There is no incentive to set oneself apart because it is regarded so scornfully by the "democratised" majority as showing off or "unfair." In our day, there is little respect for any great achievement, which I think Barzun's work is. Barzun is a tremendous inspiration.

Let's Go Back to the 1880's - Things Were So Much Better.......2001-08-07

An attack on the modern intellectual world by a leading light of the conservative "fifties" - that ghastly era that lasted from about 1946 to about 1963. Barzun is upset that the lower orders are no longer deferential to their social superiors, that women and minorities don't settle for crumbs, that students question what their professors say, that universities are not reserved for a small minority of WASP spoiled brats, and that everyone doesn't agree that imperialism is a great project. This is a man who wrote about half a century ago that, walking through the streets of New York City, he was distressed at having to listen to the "Bronx whine" and the "Alabama bleating" of the lower classes. I wonder what groups he could have been thinking about? Thank God that time has passed Barzun and his like by; they were still running American universities, or at least many of them, as recently as the early 1970's. This book is unlikely to appeal to anyone whose thinking is more advanced than that of G.W. Bush. For everyone else it is useful only as a historical document showing what the United States used to be like.

a generous spirit.......2000-11-22

Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball. -Jacques Barzun (God's Country and Mine)

At this point, that quote is so old that I just sort of assumed Barzun must be dead by now. But I heard an interview with him the other day on NPR about his new book, From Dawn to Decadence - 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to Present, which sounds like it will be excellent, and then, serendipitously, I stumbled upon this fairly recent book of his essays. As the title of his newer effort might lead you to assume, these essays reflect a profound concern about the direction in which modern culture is headed. Tackling topics which range from government patronage of the arts to the writing of history to the teaching of Humanities, the book is unified by the theme of decline in the West, but it ends on an upbeat note as he assumes that the seeds of the next great Civilization must even now have been sown in the root of our culture.

Having taught at Columbia for over 60 years, Barzun is particularly interested in the complete hash that we have made of the academy. In Where is History Now?, he offers a devastating critique of the way modern Historians have come to focus almost entirely on not merely social history, but the social history of marginal groups, to the exclusion of great persons, big events and sweeping trends. He traces the beginnings of this problem to the Annales group in France, influenced by Durkheim and others:

It was soon found that many kinds of documents existed, so far untouched and worth exploiting--county archives, private contracts, children's books, records of matriculation at colleges and universities, the police blotter in big cities, gravestones in cemeteries--a whole world of commonplace papers and relics to be organized into meanings. Such documents told nothing important individually; they had to be classified and counted. Theirs was a mass meaning, and it brought one nearer to the life of the people; it satisfied democratic feelings.

One result of this search for arcania is that the history books that are produced are unreadable catalogues of stuff:

History is not a piece of crockery dredged up from the Titanic; it is, first, the shipwreck, then a piece of writing. What is more, it is a piece of writing meant to be read, not merely entered on shelves and in bibliographies. By these criteria, modern man must be classed as a stranger to history; he is not eager for it nor bothered by the lack of it. The treasure hunt for artifacts seems to him a sufficient acknowledgment of the past.

The other main result is that these historians end up specializing so completely in one discrete topic, even within the already unuseful field of social studies, that they lack any broader perspective.

He broaches this topic again in Exeunt the Humanities, wherein he particularly decries the tendency towards overspecialization:

The danger is that we shall become a nation of pedants. I use the word literally and democratically to refer to the millions of people who are moved by a certain kind of passion in their pastimes as well as in their vocations. In both parts of their lives this passion comes out in shoptalk. I have in mind both the bird watchers and nature lovers: the young people who collect records and follow the lives of pop singers and movie stars; I mean the sort of knowledge possessed by "buffs" and "fans" of all species--the baseball addicts and opera goers, the devotees of railroad trains and the collectors of objects, from first editions to netsuke.

They are pedants not just because they know and recite an enormous quantity of facts--if a school required them to learn as much they would scream against tyranny. It is not the extent of their information that appalls; it is the absence of any reflection upon it, any sense of relation between it and them and the world. Nothing is brought in from outside for contrast or comparison; no perspective is gained from the top of their monstrous factual pile; no generalities emerge to lighten the sameness of their endeavor.

If you wish to see an illustration of Barzun's basic point, stop by a newsstand some time and try to find yourself a good general interest magazine. They no longer exist; there are of course many more types of magazines than ever before, but they are so specialized, tabloidized or politicized that you're unlikely to find more than one or two stories in each one that are actually worth reading for anyone other than a fanatic.

In one of the best essays in the collection he takes on the Bugbear of Relativism. Moral relativism is one of the hackneyed phrases that we conservatives toss around to account for the wide variety of ills we discern in modern society. Barzun deftly sketches a brief theory of the history of moral behavior, which posits that this problem is natural and cyclical:

It is a commonplace that periods of strictness are followed by periods of looseness. But what is it that tells us in retrospect which is strict and which loose? Surely the change observed is not in morals, that is, in deep feelings rooted in conscience, which are by definition hidden. The change is in mores--conventions, attitudes, manners, speech, and the arts; in a word, what the people are happy or willing to allow in public.

I suggest further that this change precedes the swing of the moral pendulum. This is not to say that the change is one of surface only, a shift of fashion among the visible upper classes. The public gradually accepts change under the pressure of social need or cultural aims, then comes the loosening or tightening of behavior in the lives of untold others beyond the fashion-makers. Untold is the word to bear in mind. For throughout every change the good habits of millions remain constant--or societies would fall apart; the bad habits likewise--or the police could be disbanded and the censors silenced.

The insight here, the divergence between morals and mores, and the fact that the great majority of people continue to adhere to moral precepts regardless of the current mores, is especially compelling. And the metaphor of the pendulum, implying as it does that the swing back must surely be coming, gives one great reason for hope.

These are just a couple of the issues that Barzun raises in this consistently interesting collection. His writing is wise and witty and not at all pessimistic. Even as he surveys the wreckage of our culture in the final essay, Toward the Twenty-First Century, though he provides one of the clearest definitions of the general concern that animates conservatives:

The very notion of change, of which the twentieth century makes such a weapon in the advocacy of every scheme, implies the notion of loss; for in society as in individual life many desirable things are incompatible--to say nothing of the fact that the heedlessness or violence with which change takes place brings about the incidental destruction of other useful attitudes and institutions.

he also ends on the hopeful note that:

...a last consolation for us--as long as man exists, civilization and all its works exist in germ. Civilization is not identical with our civilization, and the rebuilding of states and cultures, now or at any time, is integral to our nature and more becoming than longing and lamentations.

This kind of faith in mankind and an overall generosity of spirit serve the author well, tempering his often scathing indictment of modern culture with an optimism for the future which is all too unusual in conservative critics. I look forward to reading his new book.

GRADE: A

Book Description

A principal feature of this book is the substantial care and attention devoted to explaining the basic ideas of the subject. Whenever a new theoretical concept is introduced it is carefully explained by reference to practical examples drawn mainly from the physical sciences. Subjects covered include: spectral analysis which is closely intertwined with the "time domain" approach, elementary notions of Hilbert Space Theory, basic probability theory, and practical analysis of time series data. The inclusion of material on "kalman filtering", state-space filtering", "non-linear models" and continuous time" models completes the impressive list of unique and detailed features which will give this book a prominent position among related literature. The first sectionVolume 1deals with single (univariate) series, while the secondVolume 2treats the analysis of several (multivariate) series and the problems of prediction, forecasting and control.

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful Intermediate-Level Treatment.......2006-06-20

The author has assembled a wonderfully accessible study of time series analysis from the point of view of spectral theory. This book really bridges the gap between Brockwell & Davis' elementary text "Introduction to Time Series and Forecasting" and their advanced text "Time Series: Theory and Methods".
The book is logically partitioned into two volumes: Volume I (Chapters 1-8) considers spectral methods for time series, while Volume II (Chapters 9-11) extends the results to multivariate time series.

Priestly tries to keep the prerequisites to a minimum, but the reader is well advised to do a little background preparation before jumping in to this book. For the required material in mathematical analysis of Fourier series, I recommend Rudin's "Real and Complex Analysis", 3rd edition. Although Priestly provide a brief introduction to probability theory, I'd recommend a more solid grounding, as can be found in Chung's "A Course in Probability Theory", 3rd edition. The elementary text by Brockwell & Davis presents the needed material on time series analysis.

In Chapter 1, Priestly sets up the motivation for considering spectral analysis of stationary time series, and gives four practical reasons for the use of spectral methods.

The reader will find a brief, 70 page overview of probability theory in Chapter 2. If the terms don't look familiar on a quick scan of this chapter, you'll want to get more detail from Chung's text before proceeding with Priestly.

Chapter 3 introduces stochastic processes and time series. Stationary time series are defined, as is the auto-covariance and autocorrelation function. ARMA(p,q) models are introduced and some basic results are established about these models.

The core results from spectral analysis are given in Chapter 4. The two main results are the Wiener-Khintchine Theorem (characterized those functions which can be the autocorrelation function of a stationary process), and the Spectral Representation Theorem for Stationary Processes.

Chapter 5 gives a really nice treatment of ARMA(p,q) model specification and estimation. The author motivates the well-known conditional maximum likelihood techniques for estimating coefficients, and gives really insight into the development of methods of order estimation using the information criterion ala Akaike (i.e. AIC) and Schwartz.

The next section consists discuss spectral estimation and consists of Chapters 6, 7, and 8. Chapter 6 tackles the theoretical issues surrounding estimated the spectral density of a stationary process. The author does a good job explaining the shortcomings of the periodogram as an estimator, as well as the need for tapering or 'windowing'. Chapter 7 continues along this theme by giving empirical guidance for selecting windowing schemes. Chapter 8 discusses the thorny problem of posed by processes containing both a continuous and a discrete spectrum.

The last part of the book comprised Volume II and extends the results of the first volume to cover the case of multivariate time series. Applications considered in this volume include problems of filtering and prediction. In the last chapter of the book, Priestly presents some of his own research on "evolutionary spectra" which is an attempt to extend the analysis to non-stationary processes.

The book is written in monograph style; as such there are no formal exercises. However, the author gives lots of examples using real-world datasets. Working through the examples serves to reinforce the reading. The author states several theorems, but usually prefers to justify these results with a heuristic argument. On occasion, a formal proof is given, but there are no end-of-proof markers (e.g. QED). The reader must take care to determine where the proof ends and the discussion resumes.

A good mathematical discussion of Spectral Analysis.......2005-07-02

The book covers a good deal of spectral analysis with all the details and results and applications. It starts with probability theory and random processes, definition of Fourier series, spectrums, estimation using spectral methods and more advanced topics. The book focuses on frequency domain methods, though in parts it discusses time-series models like AR, ARMA, ... but in a frequency domain context. The book is rather mathematical and urges the reader to have some math background or familiarity with system theory and filters. It discusses the results for both continuous and discrete time processes, though the emphasis is more on the continuous time. The discussions are done neatly but can be cumbersome or unnecessary for people who just want to use a method. It is more a book for those who want to get to the bottom of the methods with a deep understanding of concepts.

I found this book useful and rather complete and I am using that in a lot of my own projects.

Theoretical.......2001-01-20

This book covers almost all possible aspects of spectral analysis of time series. The problem is that it is almost exclusively theoretical. It should not be used for learning spectral analysis but rather as a reference book. There are very few practical examples but when looking for a proof or an abstract presentation of a particular concept, this book should allow you to understand the theory that lies behind... However, a very good treatment of spectral analysis and very broad coverage of the subject...

Needs more examples but still very good........2001-01-09

I thought James D. Hamiltons book Time Serives Aanlysis was better. It was easier to understand and covered more material, including VAR models and State Space. Still this was and is an excellent book, and it goes into details about multivariate statistics that are not contained in Hamilton's book. I have the same complaint about this book as Hamilton's. Not enough examples. I compare these two books to those of Hosmer and Lemeshow's Applied Logistic Regression where there were nurmerous examples and problems to solve based on data they had provided.

Michael Quigley Director, Statistical Model and Data Mining Wells Fargo Bank

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Endangered Species Update, published by University of Michigan, School of Natural Resources on November 1, 2002. The length of the article is 1181 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: New Mexico's little known treasures.(Pecos sunflower and Socorro isopod)
Author: Antonia Nevarez
Publication: Endangered Species Update (Newsletter)
Date: November 1, 2002
Publisher: University of Michigan, School of Natural Resources
Volume: 19 Issue: 6 Page: 32(2)

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