Like Karl Barth, Tillich can be hard to read for those unaccustomed to reading scholarly theological texts, but once you get past the dense language you'll find yourself probing the deepest mysteries of Christian thinking and asking questions you've never before considered.

You may not agree with all of Tillich's ideas, but you simply can't ignore him when considering the deeper issues of modern theology. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wishes to deepen their faith by considering issues not considered in the day-to-day Christian world.

The authors explained very clearly the concept of rate distortion and its application to video compression. Compared to most information theory books, this book provides a more readable account of the application of rate distortion technique to video compression since the techniques are applied to real world examples. I certainly find this book enjoyable to read.

In many ways this book didn't connect to me, because it has a powerful British perspective that fails to relate other readers to the material. Nonetheless, it is a well-written and much-needed analysis of the impact of media on the "global village."
The problem of mis-representations and of misappropriation of the right to represent other cultures comes through clearly with effective research to support the claims. It is particularly effective now, after the collapse of the World Trade Center Towers in the US which I watched on TV in Cairo, Egypt. The local news channel carried the CNN footage with local announcers explaining the events in Arabic.
The monopoly of US news media is all the more obvious as I read this book with its discussions about the Gulf War being an extension of Orientalism -- where Saddam Hussein is demonized for his "inherent irrationality" and the "armies of Reason" must then suppress "the crazed monstrous Unreason."
"The media then allowed a kind of para-social, thrilled involvement in the obliteration of the monstrous Other."
This demonisation of the Other was taking place now with the CNN representation of Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban. The Taliban in particular are the target of the national news media and their primary crime seems to be in their choice of lifestyle. They have become for the US, the new "crazed, monstrous Unreason."
Morley's book is both particularly timely now, in the wake of the WTC attack and a bit outdated. His text does not address the Internet which is the real new media. He discusses only the One-Way conversation between the West (as producers of the world's news media and Hollywood cinema) and the Rest as the consumers of the Western media. After the WTC attack, some three-quarters of the US population went online to discuss the attack. In these chat rooms, they encountered people from other nations. What David Morley says of the news media is true, it is a one-way conversation. But it is not true of the chat rooms. In these rooms, people from all over the world contested the American view of Arabs or Muslims as the 'one true evil' on the planet and other similarly misguided stereotypes. In some conversations, Arab Muslims themselves contested views of their own cultures.
David Morley's text, published just six years ago, may already be out of date in respect to the media dialog. In today's new medias, anyone who can construct a Web site, anyone who can log on to a chat room may be able to contribute to the world's dialog. The question is now a Foucauldian one: Who speaks? Who listens? and who is silenced?

Temme covers all of the special functions of mathematics and physics in a clear manner while still communicating complex yet important issues. The range of information presented is immense and this book can be used as a reference for almost any special function need.

best book in unstructured mesh generation that i hope to find

This book is another in a spate of books produced by labor academics, activists, and officials, mostly spurred by changes at the top of the AFL-CIO in 1995, that attempts to deal with the precarious state of labor unions or the labor movement as they are inclined to say. It is the ability of transnational corporations (TNCs) to avoid labor unions by diversifying globally, especially in terms of production, and the changing ethnic composition of work forces in such locations as Miami and Los Angeles to which labor unions must adjust for their very survival according to these authors.

With the passage of NAFTA the pace of jobs being shifted to Mexico has accelerated. Transnationals, mostly in the automotive, textile/clothing, and electronic/electrical industries, have now established nearly 4000 factories in the maquiladora zone in Mexico with wages at about one tenth those in the U.S. Increasingly, labor unions in the U.S. have realized that global focus and actions are essential in dealing with global firms. The essays suggest and detail all sorts of cross-border alliances and contacts at both federation and union levels, as well as worker-to-worker interfacing, designed to pressure and support organizing efforts. Many readers would be familiar with the unfavorable publicity campaigns that some U.S. retailers have been subjected to as a result of cross-border collaboration. Another strategy described is the cross-border pressure that local unions of one transnational employer can apply in assisting one another.

It is fairly clear from the essays that organizing successes as a result of cross-border initiatives are few and fleeting. Though the problem is not totally ignored by the authors, widespread solidarity among workers with different languages and cultures and separated geographically is more of a pipedream than a real possibility. None of the essays even attempts to quantify overall levels of cross-border labor alliances and their impact. The authors do note that appeals to the labor laws of Mexico and the bureaucratic nightmare that describes the labor side agreements of NAFTA are of limited utility. It seems pretty evident that the taming of the forces of globalization will require far more than cross-border alliances between labor, or labor-like, organizations.

Two essays demonstrate that the family and community orientations of urban-based immigrants, if properly drawn upon, can be powerful forces in organizing unions, especially in lower-end service work. The essays show that flexible and progressive leadership that is sustained is key to immigrant organizing. But such an adjustment for craft-based unions, or any union that focuses mostly on contract administration, seems to be quite difficult despite any obvious decrease in members or loss of market power. The history of exclusion and privilege for a select group of workers is hard to overcome.

A recurrent theme in the essays is the necessity for the labor movement to become "social movement unionism (SMU)." It is a most nebulous concept, but one notion of SMU seems to require labor unions to become a part of community activities and concerns. One author claims that neo-liberal restructuring (NLR), which maquiladora zones are a part of, leads to SMU in contrast to business unionism. SMU advocates seem to be unwilling to squarely confront the fact of the scattering of specific workforces across vast metropolitan areas, a fact hardly conducive to SMU.

Along the same line of thought, but perhaps more interesting, is the notion that unionism should draw upon the themes of citizenship, which in a democracy implies participation. The author does not seem to know where to go with his concept, however, with a proposal that central labor federations provide coordination. Citizenship opens the door for much more. For example, those on the left in the labor movement eschew worker participation in managing corporations. But, it could be contended that any concept of participation in a democracy that does not provide for worker input into decisions that affect his economic destiny is pretty weak stuff. Surprisingly, the author does not touch upon the German legal mandate for works council and supervisory board participation.

This is not a big idea book. Cross-border initiatives are on the fringe as far as union participation or any significant yields for the labor movement. Organizing immigrants when and where possible is a no-brainer. The notion of citizenship for workers starts to get the picture right. It is fundamentally a political concept. It will be through substantial political power that workers' "voices" in workplaces will be guaranteed, union or no union. Furthermore, trade policy can begin to disallow imports built on the backs of those who have had to sacrifice their economic and physical health. The concept of "free trade" will be forced to take into account the real costs. But that is another book. The essays in the book are informative and useful, but for the most part the authors are tiptoeing around the fringes of large problems for the working class in the U.S. and their neighbors.

In Virtual States, Jerry Everard compiles his analyzes and discussions about the role of the state in a globalizing networked society. It can be straightforwardly stated that the ideas and discussions in the book help us to understand the Internet revolution of our contemporary age in details.

In the book, Everard opposes assertion of the eventual fading of the nation-state in information age. The author argues that information technology poses crucial challenges to methods of running a state, however this will not mean the fade of the state but rather the modification of the state. He expresses it as a "cultural artifact" whose role is moving more towards "identity-economies", and away from economies of goods and services. The conventional economies are becoming surrounded in the inter-relationships of transnational corporate business and trade agreements. On the other hand, "new economies" invite competition and they are supported by the Internet and other telecommunications media. In both economies, there are questions about making boundary identification and supporting the existing one.

I imagine that another issue in developed countries' economic life would be the productivity. The author does not discuss this issue. Nevertheless, it is a debatable question if the networked, computerized business practices improves the over all productivity or not. Many works have shown that the correlation between amount of investment done for information technology and amount of gained productivity is not clear or weak. The phenomenon needs explaining in the light of above discussion.

Moreover, the author examines the reaction to the wired society in the developing and developed worlds and he points out the difference between them. Everard states that developing countries may perceive themselves as being excluded from wired society due to the lack of networking infrastructure and technological knowledge.

In general, the author is optimistic about the future in which he expects to exploit the Internet and its services efficiently and properly together with developing and developed countries.

This is the story of the confrontation between the pre-Civil War United States and the leading power of the day, Great Britain. What momentous event almost caused these two nations to fight a war? The death of a pig. Known as "The Pig War" in Washington state, this almost war is little known in the rest of the states. One of the more interesting side issues of the Pig War is the fact that it was the last military assignment for George Pickett before he resigned his commission to join the Confederacy. Pickett would later become famous for leading the charge on the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg.

This book is a good introduction for beginners to the history of not only the Pig War, but also the history of the San Juan Islands (where the confrontation took place) and Washington state. For scholars, however, the book's style and lack of depth will be a distinct drawback.

This book offers a thorough review of the literature on women's migration, environmental connections,and identity development. The author makes a paralel between immigration and other life transitions, in that it triggers anxieties and social disruptions that create unique psychological distress. She emphasizes the need to consider the "context of exit" as well as the "context of reception" when dealing with immigration issues, since both are "significant determinants of the success of immigrants' adaptation to their new life."

This is an wonderful book for any government unit, non-profit organization that is interested in working across boundaries. It captures the spirit and essence of working across boundaries with real life examples. Any leader in government should read this book. You can use the techniques and suggestions to improve performance and recapture the spirit of innovation. Mr. Linden provides good resources and ideas to help managers and leaders work across boundaries.