I found the book to be a bit dated in some technical areas (DW on a whole changes rapidly), but I really like the fact that the book is a conglomeration of MANY expert opinions. Most books on DW are from a single point of view, while this one combines the knowledge of many since it is from The Data Warehousing Institute. I found the areas on Managing and Staffing particularly helpful.

Building a data warehouse is based in the traditions of decision support, data modeling, and information center computing. Yet it is not reducible to any of these and supersedes them. Drawing on practices, technologies, and challenges that were not dreamt of until the mid 1990s. As George Zagelow's introductory essay makes clear, the data warehouse is a transformation of operational data into a from that provides business information, intelligence, and knowledge. His recommendation is to drive out nconsistencies in legacy data spanning data marts (smaller departmental assemblies). The enterprise- wide warehouse is built as the UNION of data marts where company-wide questions can be answered. If it works, this is a tactic for constructing the larger warehouse department by department. It does presuppose acceptance (or imposition) of an enterprise perspective. Mark Sweiger provides a thorough technical briefing for management on the role of massive parallel processing (MPP) as a method for tackling the large amount of data stored in warehouses. Technology is not a silver bullet here. But it is an important component of the answer. The author lays out the terms of the debate of the function shipping model (move the query to the data) versus dynamic data redistribution (rebalance skewed data by moving the data). These are not really on a collision course; and savvy administrators will look for a relational optimizer that can cost out the differences in access method. Next essays by Paul Barth and Robert Small / Herb Edelstein address examples, issues and tools in data mining applications. The first level data warehouse answers questions about which customers are buying which products or services and where and when they are doing so. But what if you either don't know what to ask or want to drill down as to why by chasing statistically significant correlation with demographic data. What if help is needed in formulating hypotheses? Then the advance to data mining is in order. Unlike the relational database model, which, in its many implementations is arguably an open standard, data mining tools are still exclusively proprietary (vendors specific lock-in is implied). Decision trees, neural networks, clustering and class analysis are the order of the day. Here the embedded technical function are pattern matching, bottom up rather drilling down through aggregates, and fuzzy logic rather than symbolic. If you recall the advertisement criticizing the consultant for quoting Sun Tzu on THE ART OF WAR, but being missing in action at implementation time, then you will want to study Bernard Boar on Understanding Data Warehousing Strategically. Without the strategic dimension, the use of the warehouse is without vision; and Boar provides that in good measure, including the references to Sun Tzu. According to Boar, the data warehouse provides the basis for a "rising tide" strategy. In this case, all the boats that are lifted by the rising tide of useable, accessible information are the knowledge workers of the enterprise. This furnishes the cherished leverage of a multiplier effect in infusing actions and roles with meaning ("informating" in S. Zuboff's sense (p. 288). Boar provides one of the most insightful and engaging essays in this excellent collection; and as a solid piece, it is capable of sustaining criticism. To be sure, the ART OF WAR is applicable to relations with business competitors - except that today the model is compete in the morning, cooperate in the afternoon. As far as relations with customers, the model is more likely to be from a different ancient Chinese sage, Lao Tzu, whose TAO DE CHING presents the sage (data warehouse consultant?) as the sea, receiving the homage (bookable revenue?) of a thousand rivers, because he places himself below them. Also included in this volume are useful essays on data quality (the "sweat" component of genius) by George Burch, Dennis Berg / Christopher Heagele; the perspective of the end-user (Katherine Glassey-Edholm); legacy systems (Katherine Hammer); object-oriented OLAP (David Menninger); staffing considerations (Narsim Ganti); updating the data warehouse (J.D. Welch). The volume is nicely edited, printed without error, and furnished with big wide margins for notes and thoughts. There are a significant number of tables, graphs, pictures, and illustrations (in attractive gray scale) which add value to the presentation. This text would make a nice addition to the library of managers, technicians, and business experts charged with the task of building and operating the enterprise data warehouse. Finally, if any doubt exists that data warehouse technology is its own separate domain of expertise, then the essay by Ramon Barquin, also one of the editors, will dispel it. He proposes a model curriculum for data warehouse training and practice. Both extensive and deep, one must wish him well with its implementation and acceptance by the information supply chain management industry. -- excerpt from my review published in Computing Reviews, April 1998

Scales' book holds very true to it's title: The U.S. Army in the Gulf War. The contributions of other services are analyzed (and criticized) only in relation to their support of the US Army. I think anyone studying the Gulf War should read this book, but should also supplement it with other works.

This book is on the HQDA Recommended Reading list! Enjoy!

This is a very good account of what is probably the most underrated college football rivalry in the nation. It covers everything from the first snap in the series to Mark Richt's first game in 2001, and all the controversy, heroism and championships along the way.

As a Bulldog, I've been to several of these games, and the title of this book is not an exaggeration. This book is a great read for any college football fan, even if everything is not 100% accurate.

To say that college football is a big deal in the South is an understatement. The intrastate rivalries can be the focal point of the year for many fans, and in some families with divided loyalties discussion of who won the game is relegated to the categories of politics and religion, i.e.don't discuss if you want the reunion to go peacefully. Bill Cromartie has taken one of these rivalries, Georgia Tech v Georgia, researched it at length, and published a wonderful compilation of the ninety-four game series. Each season through 1999 is discussed briefly, in separate chapters, with pertinent plays, stats and anecdotes given, as well as a brief synopsis of each team's season leading up to the game, highlighted by period photographs and newspaper headlines(one shows an article of the 1941 game taking a rightful back seat to the fact that Germany was but 36 miles from Moscow). An appendix includes a few more detailed items for those interested (every player to have scored in these games, for example). The author is a Georgia graduate, but gives a fine bi-partisan effort in this book, making it great reading or browsing for die-hard Bulldogs and Yellow Jackets everywhere, as well as for college football fans of any allegience.

The author has also done books on other college football rivalries, including Army-Navy and Auburn-Alabama.

In general, it is a good book. It is a cheaper alternative to Jane's Fighting Ships, a good guide for warships but at $530 a copy very expensive. In addition to being a catalog of warships for each of the navies of the world, this book also talks about in depth about the weapons, electronic systems, and aircrafts that each of the world's navies uses. This is also an advantage that this book has over Jane's Fighting Ships since Jane's mostly focus on the warships and briefly on the weapons, electronic systems, and aircrafts for the world's navies.

However, there is no color photographs in this book, only black and white photographs. Some of the description of the warships are a little too brief; some don't even have a schematic for them.

Overall, I would recommend this book with the above mentioned reservation.

Very comprehensive, though some of the descriptions are quite short; the major ships are covered well but some of the smaller ones are not, although it is likely that that information is not available. Overall, a recommended purchase if you are interested in this field, though I would purchase the newer version.

"Congo-Paris" is a fine example of the recent trend in anthropology away from the localized study of communities and towards analysis that transcends geographic boundaries. Not that this study is "multi-sited" (to use the dominant buzzword): MacGaffey and Bazenguissa conducted their fieldwork for the book entirely in Paris, interviewing dozens of subjects from both Congo-Brazzaville and Congo-Kinshasa. But Paris is just one venue in these transnational subjects' life histories as they range back and forth across national, legal, commercial, and cultural frontiers.

While the authors set out to validate the Congolese quest for relief from political and economic hardship at home, the image they present of this loosely-defined community of traders will do nothing for its image abroad. These individuals define themselves through the act of quietly circumventing the rules (particularly import duties and immigration laws), resisting governmental authority without manifesting any visible signs of dissent. This is understandable, given the corrupt and authoritarian Congolese regimes of recent decades. But the transnational traders' ethos of stealthy noncompliance extends to their overseas existence as well, with the result in these Parisian cases being a gamut of criminal activity from smuggling and apartment squatting to drug dealing and theft. "Model immigrants" they are not, regardless of whether their behavior represents a survival strategy. One wonders just how representative this underworld is of the larger community of Congolese living in Paris, and whether those Congolese living more lawful existences there object to being tarred with this brush of illegality.

Such moral qualms aside, I give "Congo-Paris" high marks for its thorough and penetrating analysis of its subjects, a very difficult group to interview given its members' legal status and clandestine activities. No doubt its success owes much to the collaboration between MacGaffey (British) and Bazenguissa (Congolese). The book also skillfully negotiates the difficult and shifting theoretical territory of anthropology to bring outside perspectives to bear on its subjects. Finally, it makes a strong case for redefining anthropology in the context of ongoing processes of globalization. I suspect that we will be seeing a good many more studies like this one in the future.

Congo-Paris: Transnational Traders on the Margins of the Law is about globalization as practiced by Congolese traders who operate a thriving second economy linking Central Africa and Europe. She investigates the transnational trade between Central Africa and Europe by focusing on the lives of individual traders from Kinshasa and Brazzaville, who operate across national frontiers and often outside the law. Challenging the boundaries of anthropology, Janet MacGaffey follows complex international networks to examine the ways in which the African second economy has been extended transnationally and globally on the margins of the law. Who are these traders? What strategies do they have, not only to survive but also to shine? What kinds of networks do they rely on? What implications does their trade have for the study of globalization? The personal networks of ethnicity, kinship, religion, and friendship constructed by the traders fashion a world of their own. From Johannesburg to Cairo and from Dakar to Nairobi as well as in Paris, the Congolese traders are renowned and envied. This lively book shows that it is not just the multinationals that benefit from jets and mobile phones.

The floating population in China is a relatively new phenomenon, and this book contributes much to the literature, which has previously been most accessible in academic journals. The only thing holding me back from giving it 5 stars is its publication date...one year before the census in China. Updated statistics would be much appreciated, and are now available to Chinese scholars.

Dorothy Solinger's book is more than just an intelligent and well researched document about peasant migration in China today - she also offers a sympathetic and personal angle to the subject through accounts of her many personal interviews with the migrants themselves, as well as excerpts from primary sources. A thoroughly challenging read that is a must for anyone interested in the relationship between China's floating population, the state and society.

This book is written as the product of an Institute of Medicine initiative to reduce the mortality and morbidity from errors in the American healthcare system. The Institute of Medicine is a private organization created by congressional charter to advise the federal government on specific matters. Their mission statement is to "advance and disseminate knowledge to improve human health." This book is the final report of the Committee on the Quality of Health Care in America. Their homepage is available by searching the Internet using the full committee name. Membership of the committee and sponsors of the project are available at that web site.

The format of the book is to present evidence for quality problems in healthcare in America and make recommendations. The operational definition of quality used in the book is "The degree to which health care services for individuals and populations increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes and are consistent with current professional knowledge." There are thirteen recommendations presented initially and are discussed in relevant chapters. The recommendations vary in scope from suggesting that multiple parties need to be committed to quality as a way to decrease the burden of disease to suggestions that specific agencies fund pilot studies to look at how reimbursement can be aligned with quality. Six major parameters are discussed as guiding quality and it is suggested that 15 specific conditions be a focus for improving quality.

There is no difficulty in identifying literature studies that demonstrate quality problems in hospital and clinical populations. A survey of current research is included in Appendix A. A review of the tables in this appendix show the types of quality markers that are typically studied in the literature. The authors make the argument that errors due to quality lapses or deficiencies need to be actively worked on and that the current high error rates are not acceptable. Health care has become a major political issue and the political factions are shaping up to be government and business on one side and physicians and other health care providers on the other. There has been a major revamping of the health care system in the past decade to control costs. That required the active cooperation of the insurance industry and government. There is still medical inflation and limited access with 40 million Americans uninsured. Should we believe that another cooperative effort between industry and government will improve quality any more than it has controlled cost or improved access?

The authors acknowledge weaknesses in their suggestions about changing the face of American medicine, but they minimize the adverse impact of the current funding mechanisms for medical care and the issue of information systems integration and security. A good example can be found in their application of engineering principles to clinical settings - - where teams see patients for four hours of direct contact time and the remaining time is for documentation and returning calls. That plan would not be economically feasible in many settings. The high cost and lack of flexibility of the current reimbursement schemes are not mentioned as a potential reason why these plans won't work.

Information technology is seen as a way to enhance both productivity and safety. The authors suggest that e-mail can lead to productive exchanges between physicians and patients. Many physicians have been doing this for years. Many have also stopped with the advent of security concerns about medical privacy. With larger IT systems the critical issue is backward compatability with older systems. That usually requires custom designs that are extremely expensive. Those problems usually need to be solved before bedside computing and decision support can be developed. Security is acknowledged as a problem that needs to be solved. In spite of a federal initiative in this area, the important precedent to remember is how the financial privacy of Americans was protected. The authors point out that medical privacy requirements need to be more stringent than other industries. At the same time they point out that some opinions suggest that there is a trade off between privacy protections and the need to advance information technology in health care. If they are suggesting that the Internet should be at the heart of this infrastructure and the Internet is not secure, what does that mean?

A practical approach might be to focus on the areas where data is entered into computer systems and make sure that non-human analysis occurs at those levels. For example, all hospitals enter pharmacy orders into computer systems. Many hospitals require that physicians write separate discharge orders. Both of these points are areas where there could be immediate improvements in accuracy. A focused study and solution could be engineered now. The necessary software and hardware requirements could be placed on a central web site and available for download by hospital and clinic IT staff. Existing reviewers could be charged with documenting the baseline level of errors and the degree of improvement.

This book succeeds as a broad survey of what has been done about quality in certain settings. It contains some interesting ideas about what can possibly be accomplished by applying conceptual advances from other fields. It does not discuss the significant drawbacks of evidence based medicine. It lacks a practical plan for transitioning to a new system and in effect creates a new chasm. With a work like this, whether you like the conclusions depends a lot on your interpretation of the evidence and your personal experience. As a practicing physician and a previous quality reviewer I have significant areas of disagreement with what is presented in this book. Areas of controversy are not elaborated upon. I suppose you could say that level of analysis is not required, but recommendations about the future of health care in America should at least meet the criteria of "evidence based" and all the evidence should be discussed.

George Dawson, MD

If you are in anyway involved in health care, this is essential reading. Physicians, hospital administrators, purchasers, health plan execs, and grad students must immediately put this on the top of their reading list. Lives may depend on it.

In it, the highly respected Institute of Medicine builds a powerful case for how the current health care system is severely broken and how it has produced a "chasm" between what we known must be done for patients (based on current science of medicine) and what is actually done. The information conveyed is shocking but true. Even more importantly, the Institute gives us a plan for building a new, more accountable quality-driven approach to health care.

Read it and perhaps you too will be motivated to take action to improve health care delivery in America.

Rosenbaum is, for my money, the best film critic out there. His original essay on "Dead Man" led me to take another look at the film, which has since become one of my all-time favorite movies. This thoughtful commentary will help you think about what is probably the best American film made in the 1990s. And, if you like this, you should follow Rosenbaum's columns in the Chicago Reader. I often disagree with him, but there's no one more thoughtful, informed, and passionate about movies; he's a treasure.

a much maligned and mis-understood film when it came out, it's great to see a writer the stature of Rosenbaum giving "Dead Man" the respectful examination it deserves.

Rosenbaum mixes his own thoughtful analysis with excerpts from various interviews he conducted with Jarmusch to illuminate the many aspects of the film: from Neil Young's haunting soundtrack, to the role of tobacco, to its place in the acid western genre.

if you love the film, this book is the perfect companion piece.

The photos showing each project made it very easy to follow their directions. Many of the projects are quick to make, I liked the Victorian flavor of many ornaments. My sisters and I create a "family" ornament each year for our aunts, cousins, etc. We have made several from this book.

I checked this out of the public library and was very glad indeed to find it still available for purchase. For some of us, Christmas is not so much a season as a lifestyle so I've seen lots of holiday decorating books. This particular book was well worth tracking down for my own. It's particularly strong on ideas for elegant, somewhat Victorian decorating items. It's not for absolute beginners or children but there's nothing that's beyond the moderately adept home crafter.

by now it's presumably common knowledge that the nazi's had very firm ideas on art. Other than pictures of heroic nazis, grandiose mountain views and happy peasants, all modern art was considered degenerate, especially if it was painted by a jew. It's not enough just to know this, however, one wants to see what the fuss was all about. This book brings the reader reproductions of the censured works in question and provides excellent essays that discuss the painters, their work and what happened to them under the nazis. This is a work which is essentially an excellent idea. It's a fascinating period for anyone interested in the role of the state in the production of art. What is perhaps even more fascinating is that the "modern" art which was the main target of the nazis, is so often the subject, to this day, of layperson's attacks on art. Think of the classic cliche remark, "oh, my three year old could have done that". This link raises many questions about the link between the fascist outlook and many commonly held views. We are appalled by the nazis and yet their views on art are not neccessarily radical in comparison to many commonly held views. What does that mean about our political leanings? what does that have to say about democracy? Can people truly handle freedom? Or at heart do they want somebody just to step in and take care of things for them? Why is it that people find it so hard to deal with the strange, disturbing and indeed, occasionally absurd images that artists come up with when they are truly are free to express their visions? I have nothing bad to say about this book on any technical level. The essays are uniformly brilliant and useful and the art speaks for itself. the book serves not only as an excellent resource for all those interested in art history, but as a beautiful and necessary tribute to the memory of so many persecuted artists. It reminds us of the importance of artistic freedom, particularly when the results are not to our liking, or are unsettling, or disturbing. It also happens to serve as a useful primer and introduction to a lot of the great art of that time period. I salute the authors and highly recommend this book.

If the Barron/Guenther book were only about the pictures, it would still rate five stars. It has to catalog "degenerate art" (a weak translation of "entartete Kunst", but the one that has become standard) better than most of its competitors.

But Barron and Guenther were not content to stop with a catalog. Even without the pictures, this book would rate five stars. Guenther for one writes about having viewed this exhibit as a 17-year-old, giving true historical context for the gallery.

From an essay on music (which tackles the sticky wicket of Wilhelm Furtwaengler) to an explanation of the structure of the Nazi art and culture hierarchy, "Degenerate Art" provides literate and precise insight to the cultural philosophy of the Third Reich. It remains as objective as you can be about that era, refusing to stoop to shouting "rabid Nazi idiots" -- Barron and Guenther allow their readers to come to that conclusion all on their own.

The unsolved riddle, however, is one we have yet to resolve for ourselves. Witness Rudy G., and the dung-laden Virgin. How can art and government live side by side? One is empty without the other, but how do we define fine lines?

Barron and Guenther's book does not answer that question, but it certainly gives both sides of the debate a ton of ammunition.