Entropy

I have heard the 2nd law of thermodynamics argument a thousand times...the second law of therm is proof of creation, etc...

This puts a different spin on the 2nd law of thermodynamics as proof of God, Jesus, and the fall of Adam and Eve.

I strongly recommend this book to the APOLOGETIC crowd. It is probably an argument that you have not heard regarding the 2nd law of thermodynamics.

This is a classic! The book opens new avenues to gis research and development. Lots of fresh ideas. Enjoyed tremendously! Highly recommend it.

Dennison's prose transcends the muddled complexity of what is often a too reasoned literary abstraction to discover a language achieved through the balanced exchange of intellectual clarity and poetic insight. The wisdom of his argument is the result of both an idea and an uncanny accuracy found in the language born of that idea; i.e., an exploration whose development reveals both the mythically charged landscape of the occult and of vampirism's sociological and psychological implications in the actual.

Entropy in the UK concludes the story told in Vol.1 through 3. And what an ending it is...

Broken down into parts, the first 3 issues detail the torture of King Mob, and his interesting way to counteract it. Morrison is forever writing himself into his stories, and he takes off with it, writing himself as Mod Spy Gideon Stargrave. Insanity ensues...

The final issues show the Invisibles at work, fighting Ultradimensional monsters with Voodoo and Buddha. Morrison, while writing this, was struck with numerous sicknesses, cumulating in an infected lung and a serious life crisis. This shows in the story, as everyone is subjected to airborne nanotech cancer agents and King Mob suffers from a collapsed lung.

This is great storytelling, but requires that you read the first two volumes to even come close to understanding it.

A real treat.

ENTROPY IN THE UK is a thought-provoking read, and a satisfying conclusion to this first major arc in THE INVISIBLES. It balances Morrison's usual rush of madcap ideas with solid plot advancement and continued character development, as Boy and Dane question their involvement with the resistance group and Fanny and King Mob try to resist psychic interrogation and torture.

The book's opening arc, also entitled Entropy in the UK, is probably my favorite. One of the recurring themes of The Invisibles is the limits of human beings' ability to perceive their surroundings - the limitations imposed on them from the outside, and the limitations they place upon themselves. The interrogation sequence in this story is one of the finest explorations of this issue, especially in its discussion of the role of language. One of the drugs that Miles and his men pump into King Mob causes him to be unable to distinguish between a word and the concept that the word describes; as Miles uses it to warp Mob's perceptions, he talks about the limits of the English language and alphabet. It's a great sequence, one that illustrates the power of words, as well as their limits. Phil Jiminez's beautiful pencils display the dazzling, chaotic landscape of King Mob's mind and thoughts, while the narration and script lay out the dizzying ideas and mantras of the two combatants. It's very clever, very enjoyable stuff.

The rest of the book is also strong, although I preferred Jiminez's work to that of any of the other artists here -- no knock against them, as I'm a really big fan of Jiminez. Morrison wraps up some threads from SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION and APOCALIPSTICK, and sets a number of others into motion -- so at the end of this, you'll definitely want to keep reading with BLOODY HELL IN AMERICA.

Oh... so what do you need to know, I mean come *on*...

It's brilliant. Stop reading the reviews and buy the thing.

Not usually a great reader of science, I stumbled across this book at my local library, books on entropy not usually a primary concern of my reading list. But I was pleasently suprised with the fluidity and - yes!- wit with which Kirwan writes. He deserves praise for explaining a topic as dry as critical thinking in such an engaging manner. This is an excellent book for laymen and I wish more scientists would learn to write as well as Kirwan. Heartily recommended for the scientifically challenged who need a break from the usual fare of histories and novels. And yes, it turns out entropy is quite important. Who would have guessed?

I admit nearly passing on this book because of its goofy title. But I'm trying to return to the simple things in life, now, including the fundamental laws of physics. These, at least, have remained steadfast and reliable as I've gone through various stages of confusion and confoundment. Since entropy is one of these reliable consistencies in life, I was looking for a kind of "Entropy For Dummies" introduction. This looked like it fit the bill.

The fact is, it exceeds my expectations in every category. If you're a scientist, please take a look at this volume. Not only does it give clear presentations of otherwise complex concepts that are helpful in your own thinking, but you will probably know many others whose lives could be greatly improved by it.

Seriously, this book should be republished with a more sober title. It's a good solid treatment of information that every curious mind in the world needs.

It's a treasure!

This is an excellent book for non scientists interested in Nature. It reads very well. Would be a great textbook for a course "science for non majors" or "introduction to science". Wonderful present for your teenager.

The first all-new novel published by Pocket in the Star Trek franchise was written by an accomplished science fiction novelist, with a background in her own fiction, and a winner of a Hugo and a Nebula. One of the dangers of this type of author is a tendency to view the characters independently, rather than to use them as established in series continuity. Every author will play favorites with the characters, writing up the ones they like and assigning secondary roles, or completely ignoring, those they do not like. This is evident in McIntyre's first outing with the Star Trek characters.

The Enterprise is dispatched to observe a singularity, and discover the reason for its appearence. None like it, with no apparent explanation for its existence, has been observed previously. Spock is the closest qualified observer, and so he conducts the measurements, as the Enterprise spends six weeks in close proximity to the dangerous gravity well and radiation output. As Spock is working on the confirming observations, the Enterprise receives a top-priority call to a nearby starbase. The starbase personnel are confused, but they do have one duty that must be carried out: the ferrying of a dangerous prisoner to a maximum-security facility. The prisoner turns out to be a former physics teacher of Spock's, and the Vulcan cannot understand the danger posed. All records of the trial have been sealed and/or expunged.

Soon after the prisoner is taken on board, he breaks onto the bridge and shoots Captain Kirk with a spiderweb bullet, a terrorist device which causes prolonged death with great pain. The crew is horrified. The new security chief, Commander Flynn, is also killed in the assault. Spock finds that the dangerous nature of the prisoner, and his crime, is related to the professor's discovery of a simple method for time travel. This has also caused the singularity to appear, so the method is increasing the entropy of the universe, and will cause its end in less than 100 years. Spock must travel back in time himself to repair the damage to the time continuum, and save his captain and the universe. McIntyre writes well, and the book has a good plot, so the problem here is mostly with characterization.

So many of the regulars are out of character that it is often hard to take the book seriously. The author obviously likes Sulu, and to an extent Spock, while disliking Scotty and Kirk. Scott only gets "grumpy old man" stuff to do, and shows no other side of his character, aside from a measure of loyalty to Kirk. The captain is killed off halfway through the book, and might have remained that way had this book been made only of McIntyre's characters (which would have made a better book). The author also is enamored with her own characters, Commander Flynn and her security crew, and Captain Hunter, an old lover of Kirk's and the captain of a border patrol ship. There is a strongly feminist bent here, despite the small amount of time given to Uhura. The spiderweb bullet is a good invention, a projectile with tendrils that grow and crush the nervous system, reaching to the brain. The problem is, at one point McIntyre writes about visible tendrils that Spock avoids on a near-miss shot. Tendrils small enough to infiltrate the nervous system would likely be invisible to the naked eye. And another thing: when Spock endeavors to go back through time, he tells only McCoy, and ostensibly leaves the Doctor in charge of the ship. At no time was McCoy ever shown to be a command officer, and it would have been procedure (which Spock would have followed) to inform Scotty, who both was the next ranking officer, and thus should have been designated the conn, as well as being able to help to engineer the necessary parts for time travel.

It's a good story. It just doesn't work, as written, as a Star Trek story.

This story reminded me a little of the ST:TNG episode, "Yesterday's Enterprise" -in regards to the ripple effects of time travel and how it is portayed in the story telling.

In my opinion, even though Star Trek usually goes overboard in their time travel stories, this one is written very well and is not to corny. Vonda McIntyre mixes mystery and suspense along with the original Star Trek theme. I found myself not wanting to put the book down -as to see the conclusion of the suspense and mystery. Vonda McIntyre stayed in on the Star Trek theme and focused on character development.

In this story the story focused mainly on Spock and Sulu. There is the usual romance for Kirk. It's not really a romance. He runs into an old flame that gets him thinking about marriage, life, etc. But here Sulu has the more passionate and tender romance and Spock meets up with an old science mentor who is the hero/villian of the story.

This book is a great read and hard to put down! Enjoy!

-rlw

This is one of the greatest Star Trek novels I've ever read. The story was excellent, and it amazes me by the amount of planning and research that had to have been done to make this puzzle fit together the way it did. Great plot, action, and characters true to the series. Lots of creativity, giving us a glimpse at other life during this time (like interplanetary sailboats, the border patrol, etc.) without steering too far away from the Enterprise and her crew. Excellent book, great author, fantastic story. Read this one!!

This was the best books I've read in such along time!! I'm glad that the rest of the Scooby Gang got noticed more in this book! Most of the show's ep's & Books are about Buffy. But they focused this one more on Xander,Cordelia,Willow,Oz, & Angel!! So that was more of a twist! I really liked these 3 books, and everyone who is a fan should read!!

Oh, my gosh! The Gatekeeper Trilogy is the most entertaining series of books of all the Buffy books!!! I love the way the authors included all the characters instead of just focusing on Buffy all the time. I thought it was cool how, in the last book they brought Belphegor, Il Maestro,and The Sons Of Entropy together at the end and finished them off. It was just totally entertaining. I loved how they had Xander become the Gatekeeper, I never expected that, I really thought he was gonna die! This trilogy is definetely a MUST for all Buffy fans!!! It will keep you on the edge of your seat from beginning 'til end!!!!

You know how many times you get suckered into buying a bunch of paperbacks because it is some giant continued story? Well, trust me, this one is well worth the investment in time and cash. Golden and Holder are far and away the best writers working on Buffy books and in this entire series they get free reign with the characters and their imagination. There is also a respect for Buffy and her friends you do not always get in such books. Let me put it another way: you know how good this series is? I went out and got a hardback edition because this is a keeper (even if you do not have a gate).

The grammatical man has been highly recommended by some of the icons of popular science including Martin Gardner (Intellectual Journey of the highest sort) This is however a book that makes that journey too circuitous, sometimes even tortuous, to complete. For a book on information theory it is quite ironic that the average sentence in the book has brain-numbingly little information. Some examples: 'The pioneers of communication theory, cybernetics, and intelligent machines came to recognize that they were dealing with a new set of concepts and a new vocabulary unlike any that the science had previously known' Another hollow pearl 'On this issue, researchers tend to be divided along Chomskyan and anti-Chomskyan lines, some at the extreme edges, others somewhere in no man's land, being shelled by both sides' Fine lines, but vacuous if entire chapters are filled with them. Definitely not a book for the impatient reader or one with a reasonable mathematical aptitude. The book tires itself out after the first five or six chapters by needlessly running around the same Chomskyan and shannonian bushes. You (a person with a little exposure to either of the fields) would find that the same theory is phrased and rephrased in words. I do agree that popular science books need to assume little prior knowledge on the readers part, but that should not mean that a point has to belabored and hammered (eloquently...have to give him that) in. I gave the book three stars because of the the first few chapters. It is a steady boring downhill intellectual journey after that.
Sai

If you're attracted to this book because of an interest in the implications of entropy on various aspects of life, including language and information, then you should keep looking.

This was no doubt a radical and satisfying read when it first came out in the early 1980s, but the subject area has matured since then.

I will recommend the very recent "Mother Nature's Two Laws" by A. D. Kirwan as a fine alternative.

Jeremy Campbell performs an absolutely brilliant work, linking and polishing all the important concepts about every level of the universe, in such a way that even when they are the most arcane and "for-initiated-only" in their respective fields, they become crystal clear and ebulliently alive through the pages. I actually HAD to take notes carefully quoting him, in order to preserve the understanding and the wonder conveyed by the exact writing. An invaluable piece on the uniqueness of information that is a truly unique piece of the richest information itself. A book to be read many times, especially good if you are a scientist battling with specific facts every day and would appreciate to refresh your perspective of what is the universe all about.

I found the book very interesting for my research objectives. It is a valuable source of fundamental theory as well as a source of spatial-temporal statistics applied in real-world problems. I do not know of any other book that is so complete as this one.

This book is a truly important contribution to the field of space and time analysis, with a host of applications in epidemiology, geography and biology. It introduces an innovative approach, completely different from previous approaches one finds in the life sciences' literature. As a result, spatial and time analysis is boring no more. I used the book in my course last year and the students got a lot out of it, even some ideas for doctoral research. Unfortunately, the book is out of print, already, and the publisher should have new print so that students do not have to pay 3 times its original value to get it used (!).

The book includes many new theoretical elements and practical techniques in statistics. It is the one book statisticians, geologists and engineers interested in space-time analysis should consult. Well written, easy to follow the mathematics derivations, and incredibly useful in practice.

While a nice, non-intimidating introduction to the field with an emphasis on physical insight and "back of the envelope" reasoning, it is NOT suitable as a graduate level text for statistical & thermal physics, contrary to what is stated on the back cover. I would say that if one were to use this and Reif as a combo as an undergraduate, one would get a good picture of the field from both a classic and a well done modern presentation.

For graduate studies, by all means look elsewhere. McQuarrie, Kubo, Huang (if need be), heck, digging up the Dover reprints by Hill and Wannier wouldn't be such a bad idea, really.

This is by far and away the best book on introductory thermal physics I've read. It is written in plain and clear English and the development of concepts and the required mathematical framework is language-based rather than formula-driven.

The first three chapters give a beautifully concise overview of the basic concepts of first-year thermodynamics, with a very clear introduction of the concept of entropy. The highlight of the book is perhaps the development of the chemical potential and the Helmholtz and Gibbs free energies.

Baierlein gives a great introduction to thermal physics. He emphasizes the how and why and writes in english, i.e. this book is not a collection of formulas.

He does a very good job of explaning statistical mechanics, providing insiteful discussions of the Maxwell-Boltzman, Einstein-Bose, Fermi, and canonical distributions. Great description of the chemical potential. Easy to understand discussion of entropy and multiplicity and also of the partial and exact differentials used in thermal physics.

IMHO, it is the best introduction to the topic available. A similar book, but not as well written is "Thermal Physics" by Kittel and Kroemer. Of course if you are looking for a reference on Statistical Mechanics, chock full of mathematics, try Reif, Reichl, or Landau.