The implementation of stored procedures in MySQL 5.0 a huge milestone -- one that is expected to lead to widespread enterprise adoption of the already extremely popular MySQL database. If you are serious about building the web-based database applications of the future, you need to get up to speed quickly on how stored procedures work -- and how to build them the right way. This book, destined to be the bible of stored procedure development, is a resource that no real MySQL programmer can afford to do without.

When the Soviet Union pulled its forces out of Afghanistan, the American media had a simple explanation: Soviet troops had been hounded out of the mountains by U.S.-armed guerrillas--the skies cleared of Soviet aircraft by Stinger missiles--until the Kremlin was forced to cry uncle. But Diego Cordovez and Selig S. Harrison shatter this image. Out of Afghanistan shows that the Red Army was securely entrenched when the Soviet Union agreed to withdraw: American weaponry and Afghan bravery raised the costs for Moscow, but it was six years of skillful diplomacy that gave the Russians a way out. Cordovez and Harrison provide the definitive account of the Soviet blunders that led up to the invasion and the bitter struggles over the withdrawal that raged in the Soviet and Afghan Communist parties and the Reagan Administration. The authors are particularly well-suited to their task: Cordovez was the United Nations mediator who negotiated the Soviet pullout, and Harrison is a leading South Asia expert with four decades of experience in covering Afghanistan. Their story of the U.N. negotiations is interwoven with a gripping chronicle of the war years, complete with palace shootouts in Kabul, turf warfare between rival Soviet intelligence agencies, and the CIA role in building up Islamic fundamentalist guerrilla leaders at the expense of Afghan moderates. Cordovez opens up his diaries to take us behind the scenes in his negotiations, and Harrison draws on interviews with Mikhail Gorbachev, former Secretary of State George Shultz, and other key actors. The result is a book full of surprises. For example, the authors demonstrate that the Soviets intervened not out of a desire to drive to the Indian Ocean, but out of a fear of a U.S.-supported Afghan Tito. Rebuffs by hardline "bleeders" in the Reagan Administration undermined efforts by Yuri Andropov to secure a settlement before his death in 1983. Even more startling, Gorbachev resumed the search for a negotiated withdrawal more than a year before the first American-supplied Stinger missiles were deployed in the war. The Soviet intervention in Afghanistan was one of the pivotal events of recent history. Out of Afghanistan destroys many of the myths surrounding the Afghan war and will have a profound impact on the emerging debate over how and why the Cold War ended.

This big book of dinosaurs provides the answer to every question the modern dinosaur enthusiast could ever have! Packed with full colour illustrations and bite-sized fact files, this attractive and informative guide takes the intrepid reader on an A to Z journey through the prehistoric world. It provides information on how to hunt for fossils as well as a map of the world’s archaeological hotspots – in fact, everything needed to make the discovery of a lifetime!

European broadcasting policy has attracted attention from many disciplines because it has dual nature: cultural and commercial. This 2007 book offers a detailed treatment of European broadcasting law, set against an overview of policy in this area. In this respect the authors identify tensions within the EU polity as regards the appropriate level, purpose and mechanism of broadcast regulation. Key influences are problems of competence, the impact of changing technology and the consequences of increasing commercialisation. Furthermore, the focus of the analysis is on the practical implications of the legal framework on viewers, and the authors distinguish both between citizen and consumer and between the passive and active viewer. The underlying question is the extent to which those most in need of protection by regulation, given the purpose of broadcasting, are adequately protected.

Providing an introduction to the topical subject of constitutional change in Britain, this book considers the historical origins of the constitution but focuses on reforms and their likely impact. It includes chapters on: The Legislature: The House of Commons and the House of Lords; The Executive; Electoral Reform and Referenda; and more. This textbook provides an introduction to the topical subject of constitutional change in Britain. It considers the historical origins of the constitution but its main focus is on recent reforms and their likely impact. It includes chapters on: The Legislature: The House of Commons and the House of Lords; The Executive; The Judiciary; The Debate over a Written Constitution and a Bill of Rights for the UK; Devolution: Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the English Regions; Electoral Reform and Referenda; The European Union and the United Kingdom Constitution; and The 'Hollowing Out of the State'. The key theme running throughout the book is the debate as to whether the constitution has undergone a revolutionary transformation or has gradually evolved.