HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: Chris.Hynes@launchpad.unc.edu (Chris Hynes)
Subject: Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman
Organization: University of North Carolina Extended Bulletin Board Service
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 00:57:06 GMT


EINSTEIN'S DREAMS by Alan Lightman
Pantheon Books, 201 East 50th Street, New York, NY  10022
ISBN 0-679-41646-3
$17.00 hardcover (available now)

	This first work of fiction by physicist Alan Lightman is an
elegant and intricate peek inside the brain of Albert Einstein while he
was a young patent clerk in 1905.  Each chapter brings his dreams and our
minds to a different world in which the central element, time, plays a
crucial role in defining that world.  Time defines our world, and we treat
it as a fixed factor of our existence and it is very easy to forget it is
there and ignore the effect it has on our lives.  What if time stood still
instead of advancing at a regular rate?  What if time moved at a different
rate for different people or in different regions of the world?  What if
time were discontinous?  What if time accelerated and decelerated at an
irregular rate instead of being smooth and steady?  Each short and
beautifully written chapter explores one of these possibilites as Einstein
dreams what the world would be like.  The book is interrupted by
interludes in which we see Einstein himself talking with a friend of his
and they discuss his obsession with his theory of time and his progress in
development of that theory. We see Einstein's thinking progess as his
dreams continue and seemingly take over his life.
	It may seem like quite an undertaking to imagine what was going on
inside of Einstein's head at this moment in history, but Lightman does a
superb job that perhaps only a physicist of his caliber could pull off. 
If you doubt the quality of this book, just go to your local bookstore (we
just got several copies where I work), and just read one chapter.  Each
one is only 3-5 pages long and that is how long it took me to get hooked
on this one.  Lightman's book wastes no words in trying to alter how we
perceive the world in the way that perhaps Einstein saw the world.  Anyone
who reads this, please let me know if you enjoyed it.  I always like to
hear from people when I recommend a book, and since this is my first
on-line review, I think it will be especially appreciated.  Thanks to all.

mantis@uncvx1.oit.unc.edu
--
   The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the University of
     North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Campus Office for Information
        Technology, or the Experimental Bulletin Board Service.
           internet:  laUNChpad.unc.edu or 152.2.22.80
Newsgroups: alt.books.reviews,rec.arts.books
From: sbrock@teal.csn.org (Steve Brock)
Subject: Red White Blue And God Bless You by Alex Harris
Organization: Colorado SuperNet, Inc.
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 01:24:40 GMT

RED WHITE BLUE AND GOD BLESS YOU: A PORTRAIT OF NORTHERN NEW MEXICO
by Alex Harris.  University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NM 
87131-1591.  Illustrated.  128 pp., $45.00 cloth.  0-8263-1367-1


                             REVIEW

     "I peer through the ground glass at the rear of my
     camera, I see my own reflection superimposed over the
     room.  I am no longer observing the space.  I am in 
     it, part of it, imagining a life into the objects...
                                      -- Alex Harris

     Harris is well-known for his black-and-white photography
("River of Traps," "The Old Ones of New Mexico," and others), and
this is his first tentative foray into the use of color.  His
transition has not been easy.
     In his introductory essay, he tells of initially regarding
color in an indiscriminate way, he wanted color to "appear in my
photographs as randomly as color seemed to occur in life.  I
resolved to achieve this random quality by ignoring color entirely,
by making color photographs in northern Mew Mexico as if I were
color-blind."  This blindness caused him to be unsuccessful for
months.
     The seductiveness of color variations finally got the upper
hand, however, when he photographed a newly-painted front porch. 
With the click of the shutter, he was hooked.  For the next ten
years, Harris photographed scenes that, to him, "begged to be
recorded."
     At the beginning of the book, Harris's apprehension is
evident.  He must begin by putting his toe in the water with four
black-and-white photographs of his neighbors.  He then takes the
plunge with color photographs of other neighbors, concentrating on
the insides of their homes.
     The themes that Harris develops pertain especially well to New
Mexico.  Eccentrically decorated rooms of houses (one house has two
kitchens and a bed in one of them), small town street scenes, the
front of houses, and in what will probably become his signature -
several scenes shot through the windshield from the back seat of
assorted vintage and souped-up New Mexico-style cars.
     The title of the book comes from an inscription on the wall of
Amadeo Sandoval's house:  
                   "I love my God.
                    I love the red white and blue.
                    And You.
                    Red White Blue and God Bless You."
     The book is a wonderful testament to the reverence for home
that living in northern New Mexico brings, as similarly expressed
in John Nichols' "The Milagro Beanfield War."  To Harris, I say
"Vuelva," "Come again."

Newsgroups: alt.books.reviews,rec.arts.books
From: sbrock@teal.csn.org (Steve Brock)
Subject: Titanic: An Illustrated History by Lynch/Marschall
Followup-To: rec.arts.books
Organization: Colorado SuperNet, Inc.
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 22:12:03 GMT

TITANIC: AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY, text by Don Lynch, paintings by
Ken Marschall.  Hyperion Publishing/Madison Press, 114 Fifth Ave.,
N.Y., NY  10011.  Illustrated, index, bibliography, list of
credits.  228 pp., $60.00 cloth.  1-56282-918-1

                             REVIEW

          "Husbands and their wives,
          Little-bitty children lost their lives.
          It was sad, when the great ship went down
          To the bottom of the sea."

     Tragic events are frequently the birthplace of inspiration,
and the sinking of the Titanic has been fertile ground.  Over 500
songs, at least twice that many books ("the ship that launched a
thousand authors"), several movies (can we ever forget "Raise The
Titanic"), and an ale ("goes down quicker than the real thing"),
have been dedicated to the celebrated event.
     Last year was the 80th anniversary of the Titanic's demise on
its maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York.  Only an
estimated 750 of the approximately 2,200 passengers survived.  The
5,000 member Titanic Historical Society marked the event with a
convention in Boston.
     At the convention, there was still intense discussion about
the captain and crew.  Were they heroes or blunderers?  And did the
rescue ship "Californian" do all it could?   Present at the
convention were historian Don Lynch and artist Ken Marschall, who
combined their talents with the recently published "Titanic: An
Illustrated History."
     Lynch chronicles the Titanic's short life, from its inception
as the world's largest (and unsinkable) ocean liner to its
collision with an iceberg on April 14, 1912, to its discovery on
the ocean floor in 1985.  His record, though, adds nothing new. 
There are many passenger profiles, but they come across like those
in one of the "Airport" movies.  The most intriguing vignette is
that of the Allison family, who also appear in Danielle Steele's
"No Greater Love."
     There are also several minor factual errors, especially in his
outline detailing the lives of some of the survivors.  
     The operative word in the title is "illustrated."  The book is
packed with hundreds of period photographs of Titanic memorabilia,
and though most have appeared in other publications, they are
complimented by the lifelike paintings by Marschall.
     These are what make the book worth the purchase price.  From
the fold-out cross-section of the ship, to the representation of
water gushing in through the first-class stained-glass dome, to one
of Robert Ballard's submarines investigating the carcass, the
images are eerily beautiful.
     A must for the Titanic specialist, as well as those who
blindly believe in the infallibility of technology.

Newsgroups: alt.books.reviews,rec.arts.books,talk.environment
From: pauld@cs.washington.edu (Paul Barton-Davis)
Subject: Re: Education and the Environment by Gregory A. Smith
Organization: Precipitating Pendulums Postal Party Poopers
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 93 19:26:32 GMT

In article <1992Dec30.060453.29924@netcom.com> dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig) writes:
>As it is, I gather from your review that the author is calling on us to
>train students to share his opinions.

Rather, the author is recognising that all education is in part
"training to share opinions", and that we have a choice about what
those opinions are. 

It would be nice if all education consisted merely of the skills that
adults use to discern information and ideas about the world;
unfortunately nobody has any idea how to teach such skills to children
without also passing along some opinions on the way; Smith's point is
that the choice of opinions (and there is no choice that we have a
choice) is important.

-- paul



-- 
hybrid rather than pure; compromising rather than clean;    | Militant Agnostic
distorted rather than straightforward; ambiguous rather than| I Don't Know
articulated; both-and rather than either-or; the difficult  |   and You Don't
unity of inclusion rather than the easy unity of exclusion. |   Know Either
Xref: sparky alt.books.reviews:162 rec.arts.books:24745
From: sbrock@teal.csn.org (Steve Brock)
Newsgroups: alt.books.reviews,rec.arts.books
Subject: A Day in the Life of Hollywood, edited by Lena Tabori (Photo)
Date: 12 Jan 93 17:35:50 GMT
Organization: Colorado SuperNet, Inc.

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF HOLLYWOOD, edited by Lena Tabori.  Collins
Publishing, 1160 Battery Street, San Francisco, CA  94111. 
Illustrated, photo credits.  224 pp., $45.00 cloth.  0-00-255055-5

                             REVIEW

     The date - May 20, 1992.  The city - Hollywood, California. 
They work here.  They carry a badge (actually, it's a Screen Actors
Guild card).  They were working the day and the night shift, doing
their regular tasks, when they were besieged by seventy-five
photographers who took over 150,000 (narrowed down to 225) color
and black-and-white photographs of them for a book/documentary.  My
job - find out if the book is any good.
     The 12th installment in the "Day in the Life" series, this
book seems to be the most challenging.  Previous titles have
explored countries such as Spain, Canada, Ireland, and the (then)
Soviet Union.  With a city like Hollywood, the geography to be
explored is much more cultural than physical.
     The book opens without a formal introduction, with standard
photographs of a model in front of a pool, a man polishing the
Hollywood Boulevard star of Lou Gossett, Jr., billboards on the
Sunset Strip, and Rosanne and Tom Arnold eating popcorn in their
bedroom while previewing Rosanne on a Tonight Show segment to be
aired later that night.  
     The photography gets to be a treat, though, when the reader
gets to the two-page foldout spread of the stage of the Orpheum
Theater, whose curtain (pages) opens to reveal an aerial shot of
Mann's Chinese Theater.
     While there are numerous photos of motion picture stars such
as Dennis Hopper, Joe Pesci, Robin Williams, Keanu Reeves, Dudley
Moore, Jimmy Stewart, Billy Barty (who once kicked me in the shin
at the Tournament of Roses Parade in 1968) and others, the
photographers spent time seeking out people behind the scenes: the
publicists, screenwriters, directors, film editors, animators,
producers, critics, makeup people, and agents whose work provides
the best face and words for those on the screen.
     My favorite of these exposes producer Rick Rubin, owner of Def
American, in bed with sunglasses on.  A note next to the bed says
"Call Joe Strummer."
     "A Day in the Life of Hollywood" is an especially appropriate
title for this work.  In the time it took for the book to be
produced, many of the people portrayed had left the businesses they
had been affiliated with.  Several scenes in the book reveal the
preparation for television shows that never screened. Consequently,
this is indeed a "moment in time."
     While the book has its conventional motifs, there are more
than enough memorable images, as well as essays by Charles
Champlin, Linda Sunshine, and Mark Matousek and interviews with
Benny Medina, Joe Roth, and John Singleton.  From the fantastic to
the facile, this is truly a peek inside the dream.
Newsgroups: alt.books.reviews,rec.arts.books
From: Chris.Hynes@launchpad.unc.edu (Chris Hynes)
Subject: bookstore worker newsgroup
Organization: University of North Carolina Extended Bulletin Board Service
Distribution: usa
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1993 18:50:00 GMT

	As a bookstore employee, I was wondering if there was forum,
mailing list, or newsgroup for bookstore employees to share ideas, etc. 
Rec.arts.books has too many postings already and alt.books.reviews seems
better to be left alone and allowed to post only reviews.  Any other
bookstore workers that share my views?  It's not that I think that
bookstore employees are too cool to associate with general public, but I
think that perhaps they would not be interested in conversations between
bookstore employees.  Also, as a response to the person who commented on
the ignorance of bookstore workers, I have two suggestions: 1> vote with
your dollars and shop somewhere else (tell your friends to do the same),
or 2> scrape some money together and come start up a bookstore with me
where we only hire intelligent people (since I work in a bookstore, I am
too poor to start a business myself).  Thanks to all....

Christopher J. Hynes
 
--
   The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the University of
     North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Campus Office for Information
        Technology, or the Experimental Bulletin Board Service.
           internet:  laUNChpad.unc.edu or 152.2.22.80
Newsgroups: alt.books.reviews,rec.arts.books
From: sbrock@teal.csn.org (Steve Brock)
Subject: Andres Nagel by Edward Lucie-Smith
Organization: Colorado SuperNet, Inc.
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 20:23:51 GMT

ANDRES NAGEL by Edward Lucie-Smith.  Rizzoli International
Publications, Inc., 300 Park Avenue South, N.Y., NY  10010. 
Illustrated, bibliography, filmography, chronologic biography, list
of exhibitions, list of public collections, list of illustrations. 
247 pp., $75.00 cloth.  0-8478-1598-6

                             REVIEW

     When Nagel and Lucie-Smith get together to go over slides for
their book, they don't want to be disturbed.  In a photograph on
the page that fronts the introduction to this new monograph, both
men look extremely put-out, and Nagel is pointing toward the door
with his thumb.
     Now that they are done, the reader is beckoned into a
confusing and changing world of invention and introspection. 
Nagel, a 44-year-old sculptor from San Sebastian, in Spain's Basque
country, is a solitary figure whose works are richly evocative, yet
sometimes baffling.  I am indebted to Lucie-Smith for his percep-
tive interpretation and commentary.
     Nagel's sculptures are frequently collages that draw from
numerous media and elements within one piece.  This trait has
caused him to be labeled as a Pop Artist.  While there are pieces
to which the term readily applies, Nagel also incorporates
religious imagery, folk art, myth, and Neoclassic and Surrealist
themes.
     Lucie-Smith devotes ten chapters to Nagel's development,
chronicling two decades of increasing maturity in the 1980s and
90s, and branching out into different themes and motifs: dragon
imagery, the creation of chairs, musical and animal patterns, gods
and goddesses, and fantastic worlds, on metal, polyester, and
fiberglass.
     Several of his sculptures are hard to understand (Lucie-Smith
calls them haunting, disturbing, and original).  Especially
confusing are some of the titles Nagel uses.  A green cow with a
horseman on its back and the word "Schwep" across the side is
called "Monkey Business."  One of his more famous works reveals the
toes of a foot sticking out vertically from the top of an old black
shoe and is titled "Red Like Coca Cola."  Lucie-Smith suggests that
this may be a Freudian (a shoe is a common symbol for the vagina)
suggestion of sexual dysfunction.
     However interpreted, Nagel's works, especially his recent
ones, are refreshing, playful, irreverent, and original.  Lucie-
Smith's knowledge of Nagel's complexities are extremely helpful in
understanding the artist's motivations.  The book is a fascinating
Newsgroups: alt.books.technical
From: henwoogr@elec.canterbury.ac.nz (Gazza)
Subject: Re: voice synthesis
Organization: Electronic and Electrical Engineering Department, University of Canterbury, New Zealand.
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 06:46:19 GMT

In article <328e02XX31e301@JUTS.ccc.amdahl.com>, kzt50@DUTS.ccc.amdahl.com (  911  Kevin Thomas) writes:
> 
>    Hi,
> Could somebody please send my some information on voice synthesizers,
> I need alot of information quickly.
> Kevin.
 Me too - any info of books etc would be appreciated here as well.

Gazza (henwoogr@elec.canterbury.ac.nz
Xref: sparky alt.books.technical:423 sci.math:17776
From: ah335@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Richard Banks)
Newsgroups: alt.books.technical,sci.math
Subject: Re: High Prices of Math Books. I am pissed.
Date: 7 Jan 1993 03:32:42 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Reply-To: ah335@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Richard Banks)
NNTP-Posting-Host: slc10.ins.cwru.edu


In a previous article, hdev@dutiai.tudelft.nl (Hans de Vreught) says:

>jk87377@cc.tut.fi (Juhana Kouhia) writes:
>
>>Xerox copies (A4 size) are $0.05 per page; with two pages per A4 it
>>takes $11.3 for 452 pages.
>>(Though, I do not have plans to copy book(s) -- this was just an
>>example.)
>
>Don't you forget the $3.50 * 452 = $1582 you have to pay to the publisher if
>you copy the book :-). Copying is allowed only if you pay the $3.50 for *each*
>page (the $3.50 is what is customary nowadays). I'm curious if anybody have
>paid the $3.50 per page or if it is only to scare of pirates.

Also, when copying in a public library, librarians always ignore you
even if they see you making large numbers of copies of a book or
magazine.  I guess they figure, hey the more they copy, the more revenue
we pull in.
Newsgroups: alt.books.technical
From: joann@unixhub.SLAC.Stanford.EDU (Jo Ann Malina)
Subject: Re: Why tech. books cost so much
Organization: Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1993 12:32:40 GMT

In article <1993Jan8.143933.11137@Princeton.EDU> bathurst@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Bruce Bathurst) writes:
>
>What happens to a civilization in which the people can no longer afford
>to own books?

at the same time that public libraries are being drastically cut
back and closed?


*) *) *) *) *) *) *) *) *) *) *)!(* (* (* (* (* (* (* (* (* (* (* (* (*
Jo Ann Malina, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
joann@unixhub.slac.stanford.edu  -or-  415/926-2846
Neither Stanford nor the DOE would be caught dead with these opinions.
Nor do they consult me when formulating theirs.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
It ain't what they call you, it's what you answer to.     -Bill Clinton
Newsgroups: alt.books.technical
From: an1060@anon.penet.fi
Subject: Continuum Mechanics Book Wanted
Organization: Anonymous contact service
X-Anonymously-To: alt.books.technical
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 21:29:59 GMT

X-Anon-To: alt.books.technical


Hello All,

Does anyone have a copy of: 

Mathematics Applied to Continuum Mechanics, by Segel & Handelman.

For those who attended RPI, this is the book used for Foundations of
Applied Mathematics II (FOAM II).

I am looking for an original copy, i.e. published by Macmillan,
the book is black hardcover with green lettering (yes, quite unattractive)...

If you have one in very good condition, please contact me.

Respond to:  mantell@ams.sunysb.edu

Thanks...

Abe Mantell


-------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Due to the double-blind system, any replies to this message will be anonymized,
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Newsgroups: alt.books.technical
From: Robert_Magee@mindlink.bc.ca (Robert Magee)
Subject: Re: The Stock Market, Futures, and questions
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1993 20:05:48 GMT

The first two courses I would advise is the Canadian Securities Course
(Correspondance) administered by the Investment Dealers Association and the I
would suggest the Series 3 commodities course administered in Canada by that
same body.  These courses will give you the fundamentals and then you can get
all the software you could ask for throught the Chicago Board of Trade.

Happy trading
Bobby Magee
International Portfolio Management
Robert_Magee@mindlink.bc.ca

Newsgroups: alt.books.technical,alt.books.reviews
From: robert@leda.e-technik.uni-dortmund.de (Robert Weissenfels)
Subject: American books in foreign countries
Organization: University of Dortmund, A.O.I. Microelectronics
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 10:50:48 GMT
Reply-To: robert@leda.e-technik.uni-dortmund.de
X-Posted-From: leda.e-technik.uni-dortmund.de
NNTP-Posting-Host: sol.ctr.columbia.edu

As already stated before (e.g. by Steve Balogh), american books are
horribly expensive in other countries.

The reasons for this might be quite reasonable, but I think by buying 
directly from US-bookstores, I could save some money.

Now: Can anybody tell me where to order american literature (mostly 
technical stuff) directly? Might there even be some email-address?

Thanx in advance...

Robert
-- 
              ________
             /////////   University of Dortmund
 # # #  # # ## / # //    Microelectronics Division
 # # ## # # # # # #/     Robert Wei{\ss}enfels
 # # # ## # # # # #      P.O.BOX 500 500
  #  #  # # ## / #       D-4600 Dortmund 50
________/////////        
\_\X\_\_\///////         Phone: +49 231 755 3256
 \_\_\_\_\/////          
  \_\_\_\_\///           robert@leda.e-technik.uni-dortmund.de
   \_\_\_\_\/           
Please don't blame me for our nazis, idioty is international...
Newsgroups: alt.books.technical