there are a surprising number of physics books with the word "modern" in the title. my textbook for last year was called modern physics. one of my classes next year is called modern physics. my professor just lent me a book with a chapter on calculating angular separation and the title is, just guess, modern astrophysics. now, I don't really have a problem with this, but this modern astrophysics has a copyright date of 1996. a lot changes in the world of astrophysics over seventeen years, and I hardly think this material can be called "modern." so why do we call these things modern when this will only describe them for about five years? I think we as a community become so excited about the information we have that we want everyone to know how new it is, never mind that it will soon be obsolete. by the time I get my Ph. D., this "modern physics" class will be about 10 years behind the current times and will, in fact, no longer be modern.