This book is on a topic that is evolving so quickly across the world that its usefulness must have lasted a whole 9 months. It is written from the perspective of an international lawyer, which means there is little actual applications in here for the practitioner from the banking or user perspectives. It includes some interesting information that would save a lot of time to compile, such as the existence of "true sale" financial flow transactions in certain countries, but it is sparse.

To me, the most interesting aspect of this book is the historical one, showing how much emerging markets securtiizations have evolved since it was published.

This book was based upon the exhibition of Frank Wooton aviation art in the National Air and Space Museum in the mid-1980s. Most of the images are done in black and white. It contains far more text than the 1976 Ballentine Wooton aviation art book, but the color plates are few and far between. It does contain some 1982-83 paintings that I had not seen before. I would rank this one behind the 1992 "Frank Wooton : 50 Years of Aviation Art" and the softbound 1976 Ballentine book. Not bad if you find a discounted copy, but for the money, I'd recommend the newer 1992 book ( and the more recent reprinting of it.) J. Campbell "Cam" Martin

I found the book to be informative, but could have done without so much of the author's bragging about himself and his accomplishments. People who would want a book on this subject are probably trying to deal with myasthenia in their own lives and won't really be interested in how the author set up his own businesses. Cut some of the extranious material and it would be a much better book.

I was quite interested to see this book very favorably reviewed in the International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence (IJIC), the top journal in the field, so it was with some disappointment that I found it to be less robust than I expected.

At one level, that of a very basis reference, it could be a solid four-star effort, and I give the author and publisher credit for having conceptualized and executed this on-going endeavor. Especially bothersome is its limited coverage--a directory such as this, especially in the aftermath of 9-11, must be comprehensive and include countries like Colombia, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the Central Eurasian "stans" to name a number that are not covered.

I found both the updates and the further readings to be a very mixed bag, with too many countries that I am familiar with suffering from what appears to be either an over-reliance on one or two primary sources or somewhat random notation. It is clear to me that this book does *not* benefit from a systematic literature review, nor is it really current with the great web sites that are available, both in general terms as well as with specific country orientations--on top of the limited coverage, less than a third of the world, this really reduces its value.

This book has the potential to be a five-star reference work of enormous value, if it makes the following changes:

1) Create a broader board of advisors. The author performs heroically for one man, but clearly does not have the global network of true experts that is needed to make sure his coverage is world-class.

2) Add a State of Intelligence report to the front of the book, with regional overviews. The emergence of a European intelligence community, the impact of the Kosovo war on this movement as well as NATO, NATO's publication of an open source intelligence handbook, etc., the specific points of failure for 9-11 as well as the Afghan campaign that failed to capture the Al Qada leadership, all should be in there, together with the Homeland Security initiative and new relations among nations now quasi-committed to improved cooperation against terrorism--while decapitating their programs against crime. To be a proper reference work, this book must also take care in the overview to tease out the threads of progress among the varied intelligence communities that exist-national civilian, military, law enforcement, investigative journalism, business intelligence, and academic studies on intelligence. The fact that it does not reference such vital organizations as the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals, or the International Association of Law Enforcement Intelligence Analysts, for example, suggests that the book is being put together along very old lines of thinking, and is not yet coming to grips with the dramatic changes occurring in the real world of intelligence.

3) The publisher, or a non-profit foundation, must fund a proper literature review. Even for the United States, the most obvious country, most of the intelligence reform books published between 1999 and 2002 and listed by the Council on Intelligence do not appear in this reference work, nor does it retain the Aspin-Brown Commission Report or the House Permanent Select Committee Report on IC21, as references of continuing relevance.

4) The index must be expanded to include all authors and organizations.

5) The acronyms must be expanded to be truly comprehensive. A one page listing that is mostly military ranks and failed to include the acronyms PfP (Partnership for Peace), OSINT (open source intelligence), or C4I (command, control, communications, and intelligence--a vital aspect of understanding where intelligence fits in the larger picture) is simply not serious.

Bottom line: I will keep this book as a light-weight reference, but I will not buy it again unless the publisher gets serious about producing a quality product that is truly international and reflective of the intelligence reform and intelligence failure lines of inquiry that are well-known to serious professionals who understand that intelligence is the core competency of both governments and organizations in the age of information.

In her latest respected work, futurist Hazel Henderson calls for a win-win world founded on cooperation, not domination. She provides a rich, fascinating, detailed, and thoroughly researched and cited look at the waning days of our current dysfunctional global paradigm. Then she looks ahead for a peek at the possible future of a new, healthier paradigm. Though it was justly well-reviewed, this book is not light reading. It is written in conversational language, but it has a scholarly depth and reach. It is a book to study, not flip through. Henderson calls for a complete redesign of every societal system imaginable - from economic and political to social and ethical - all with an eye toward sustaining a global economy and a more humane world view. We at getAbstract highly recommend this book to readers interested in economic, global, environmental, social, political, and ethical issues.

This book, is a subjective look at capital punishment. The author's unbiased approach makes it a great resource for research papers. It would also make excellent leisure reading material for anyone interested in learning about the death penalty.

It's certainly a great concept: explain differential geometry - and and the myriad real-world applications of this subject - by appealing to our geometric intuition! (Those who have read just about any other text will realize that I am sincere, not sarcastic in this remark - the intuitive approach is quite unusual in treatments of the subject material.)

To a limited degree, the book is a success. The first chapter flows rather smoothly, and could actually be used to introduce differential geometry in an advanced high school classroom. I would consider that in and over itself to be a truimph! In places, it's fun to read, and some of the "constructions" (often using three dimensions) are both clever and helpful. And I must confess that reading this book I picked up bits and pieces of intuition that I had missed when reading other texts.

For all of these reasons, I found myself really wanting to like this book; sadly, I ultimately found that I could not. Unfortunately, the intuitive approach starts to break down as the book proceeds. In the later chapters, I could only intuitively grasp and fully understand what Henderson was trying to explain because of previous familiarity with the material; I would have pretty baffled without prior knowledge of the subject. The writing and presentation just does not compare with that in some of the better (if more traditional) texts in differential geometry, such as Manfredo P. Do Carmo's Differtial Geometry of Curves and Surfaces or Michael Spivak's excellent five-volume Comprehensive Introduction to Differential Geometry. If one is familiar with those (or other similar) texts, it might be fun to take a look at Henderson's book. If not, look there first - or at least look there as well - in your explorations of this field of mathematics.

It was pretty good, but could have given more ideas of how to improve you riding skills, instead of reviewing all the basics.

Edith Henderson in her book Home Landscape Companion reflects her desire to help homeowners bring beauty and balance to their home landscapes through sensitive and well-planned design. She navigates the reader through the seasons and by the months of the year. Each season has a role or function; "in winter months we are setting the stage for the living, fascinating show we shall see in spring" while the "spring intoxicates us with its beauty". Each month has direction and purpose; tasks and chores are assigned--some months are for digging, others for planting while some intend reflection and study. Throughout the book Edith displays her knowledge and reflects her intense respect for the plant world. She states, "plants must look comfortable where they are asked to grow" while noting that "plants have different personalities". Edith hopes her reader will make a connection with their landscapes, study its historical roots, understand the vegetation, sketch, observe, and plan accordingly. Her advice is practical--"you get what you pay for" and her directions are clear and simple--"plant seeds for summer color now!" Balance is the ultimate goal she hopes her reader will achieve through their individual designs. Her book is personal, legible and provides an exciting launching point for a typical home gardener who has a yearlong commitment to their garden and wishes to explore, appreciate and enhance their landscape.

It is all very well the cover flash of this book saying OVER 500 PHOTOS! but that gives the reader no idea about the quality of the black and white photos inside. After looking through the five hundred I can truly say that at least a hundred should have been junked at the design stage, either soft focus, too dark, badly cropped and in somes cases I wonder if they really are gas stations.

The dull layout does not help either, some of the good quality photos could well have been blown-up over a few spreads for a change of pace, however the captions are very informative with plenty of observations about the retail aspects of gas sales.

This is a book for the dedicated gas station fan, the mildly curious would do better to have a look at two books by Michael Witzel, 'The American Gas Station' and 'Gas Stations Coast to Coast', and John Margolies lovely 'Pump and Circumstance'. For a comprehensive historical overview there is only one book 'The Gas Station in America' by John Jakle and Keith Sculle.

''Go ahead, filler'er up''