Van Kampen has woven a compelling, believable story which clearly lays out the Biblical prophecies regarding the end of the world. Even a reader with a limited familiarity with or understanding of the Bible will find "The Fourth Reich" an interesting and credible novel. The characters are people the reader can care about, most situations are plausible. A few loose threads are left hanging (Will Sonya and her brother Yacov reunite?, Is there no chance for Bulgakov's followers who doubt him--Anna, for example--to renounce him and be saved?, etc.) and some things are just a bit pat towards the end of the novel, but, in all, this is a book that you'll stay with until you've reached the end. As busy as I am, I read it in two days! Regardless of your personal religious convictions, it's worth your while to compare Van Kampen's predictions with your own understanding of Biblical prophecy. So much of the Book of Revelation is difficult to understand for the average person; Van Kampen spells things out quite clearly. "The Fourth Reich" helps sort things out. You'll want to read and learn more!

This is the best End-Times novel I have read yet! While I was reading this, my best friend and I were doing a study on the End-Times. I disagree with the assumption of Adolph Hitler being improbable of being the Antichrist. I really appreciate the fact of the book being based in Israel as opposed to America in the Left Behind series by LaHaye. I have found in my study that not all the things that happen in the End-Times happen all over the world. Some of them will happen only in Israel. I have also found that as LaHaye thought the Rapture to happen before the Tribulation, I have found direct verses in the Bible stating the Rapture to happen in the Middle of the Tribulation. (Revelation 10:5-7, 1 Corinthians 15:51-52) The Last Trumpet is sounded in Revelation 12:15. I say again, this is the most accurate End-Times novel I have read yet.

I like it. I love it. Yes, I am a bible believing person. I am a christian. I've read the scriptures concerning the End Times. Everything in the book that happens goes according to scripture. There's only one thing, nobody's certain whether the rapture will happen before the tribulation period, or in the middle. But, it's very true to life. Many are afraid of what will happen during this time. BE REST ASSURED... IT WILL HAPPEN. It may be listed under "fiction" but that doesn't mean that it's not real. That just shows where people hold it in their esteem. If you read the bible, you can find out exactly how many of the old testament prophecies were fulfilled about Christ... it will shock you to know that all of them, (except those that will be fulfilled in the second coming) have been fulfilled. Also, the bible has never been proven wrong. NEVER. I've read and seen the truth. Please read the Bible, then read this book. If you are a christian who doesn't totally understand what the tribulation will be like, read this book. I think it's worth 5... not 4... stars

Frank and Cook's book, The Winner Take All Society, forces us to reconsider our position on the inherent good of the free market in light of newly emerging forms of destructive, albeit free, competition and growing income inequality. Written in the vein of a thinly veiled rebuke of the moral and social decline of the American economy and society, the book appears to focus too much on specific individuals, and merely states a few implications for society as a whole. In my mind, what the authors posit as the verities for individuals and corporations under a winner take all banner just as readily applies to the nation and ultimately, the world. Taking their arguments one step further, advances in high technology, such as the internet and telecommunications, have increased productivity, transformed labor markets all over the world, and created uniform standards for goods and services that can now be consumed anywhere in the world. In effect, technology has made the world a similar, smaller place. Thus, what is true economically in America now is most likely true elsewhere, though cultural differences still remain.

While winner take all markets can, with the aid of technology, make the goods and services of the few available to everyone in the world, they also have many negative consequences. Winner take all markets magnify the consequences of first mover advantages, making it difficult, if not impossible, for those late to the competition, be they corporations or countries, to establish themselves. Winner take all markets continue to increase the disparity between wealthy, industrialized countries of the North and the impoverished, besieged economies of the South. Winner take all markets continuously lure our most talented individuals into socially unproductive and often individually and socially destructive tasks. Many of the world's economies already invest too little for the future, be they nations struggling to develop (such as those on the African continent), or fully industrialized nations (such as the United States), and the growth of winner take all markets has encouraged wasteful patterns of investment and consumption. Finally, winner take all markets have the proven ability to undermine what is in the best interests of our culture and society, and given the terrifying ability of winner-take-all markets to rigidly engender and enforce conformity, standardization, and one-upmanship, this growing phenomenon can only be counter-productive and disruptive to the efforts of indigenous peoples to maintain and preserve their fragile and threatened cultures.

Quite literally, in winner-take-all competitions, the rules really are there are no rules. As such, these competitions lead people to do very crazy things. When large payoffs are at stake and there is a very real certainty of the loser(s) getting absolutely nothing for their effort, contestants have powerful incentives to spend money to enhance their chances of winning, and have little or no moral compunction to exercise restraint and sensibility in their behavior. This is especially the case where unfettered, free competition is the rule and covenants and/or regulations to ensure orderly, equitable markets are not the norm.

Thus, there seems to be an inverse, negative relationship between investment in these all or nothing competitions and their (social) value to the larger group. As the pace of investment, size of the investment and the risk associated with the investment in the winner take all competition increases, the social and economic value of the competition steadily decreases. While these investments look justifiable from the individual's or nation's standpoint, especially if there is a considerable chance that the individual stands to win, and win big, the concomitant dueling that these investments fuel almost always appears excessive from the standpoint of the society. As such, these all-or nothing competitions have led to a plethora of economic versions of military arms races between individuals, corporations and nations.

Although one could surmise much of the content from experience and simple common sense, I generally found the book to be a straightforward and thought-provoking read. Yet, many of the examples demonstrating the extent to which such competitions have infiltrated all aspects of our economic life, as well as the often ridiculous, comical and increasingly desperate attempts by individuals to thrive in these all-or-nothing environments, profoundly scared and disturbed me. The authors could have done away with the last chapter, a rehashing of the same old remedies to the problem, and written a much better ending which could have summarized the main points of the book and discussed their implications, going forward, for all participants in the new global economy.

In conclusion, these all-or-nothing competitions have steadily become 'the only game in town'. Yet, I seriously doubt that these dangerous economic games are really worth playing.

This book would make a fantastic 30 page essay. It covers very important ideas and backs them up with analysis and examples. But then it starts to repeat itself, and bring out too many examples without new ideas.

The basic premise of this book is that the U.S. has too many markets where the "star" or top performer gets a large percentage of the proceeds. Examples are the sports market, the movie star market and the publishing market; The reasons given are;

-Technology. National distribution channels such as network television make it easier for an individual to penetrate the market. For example, at one time villages and towns had their own musicians. Now a singer can make a CD and sell it nationally.

-Falling transportation and tariff costs. Goods have gotten lighter. It is easier to send computer discs all over the world than books. CD's are lighter than phonograph records

-- Mental shelf space constraints. We have a limit to the number of items we can keep in our head..."the amount of information we can actually use is thus a declining fraction of the total information available."

-Weakening of regulations and civil society. At one time, informal and formal rules limited the winner take all markets. Now, like free agents in baseball, the top performers have the leverage to demand high prices.

-Self-reinforcing processes. This is another way of saying "success begets success." For example, a sales person does well and gets bigger customers. A person does well and the word of mouth referral causes them to saturate the market. This virtuous cycle increases the income and power of top performers.

The author argues that winner take all markets are not good for society. People are unrealistically optimistic about their own chances of winning "a prize." Thus they are siphoned off from other productive endeavors.

This book was helpful to me in understanding today's economy and job market. If anything, the winners are doing better than ever today, long after the book was published. Just take a look at the latest article on CEO salaries.

This book as mentioned in the title is horrible. It is incomplete in many areas, case and point, curve graphing. In many cases the book does little more than introduce the topic and give somewhat bland math questions. This book will not help you through a normal course because it is somewhat babified.
Now back to the incompleteness. Half-way through the book trigonometric function graphs are introduced (y=sinx and so on). The book very briefly describes aspects of each periodic function in a somewhat scattered manner. All of the information that is given fits on about one 8 1/2 X 11 piece of paper, somewhat terse isn't it?
This book is not for beginners and is most likely not even for people that would like to brush up on trigonometry. For a more comprehensive edition of a trigonometry tutorial you must turn elsewhere because this book will leave you asking what? huh? how? Perhaps one of the better trigonometry titles out there, and believe me I say this reluctantly because it is also deplorable, is Trigonometry the Easy Way. In conclusion if you have this book return it or if you can't use it only as a way to reinforce trigonometry ideas.

This book is great for people with thick glasses with tape on them who are presidents of their computer programming clubs but for the rest of us this is not too great. This book is heavy on the theory but lacks application which MOST people need in their classes. No teacher is gonna ask you what a Apollo Axil Centripital Angle(no such thing) is. Too confusing but very organized. These people did a great job in explaining theory. I would not sugest this anyone to use this independently.

Trigonometry was never a good subject for me--I never "got" it. But when I was taking advanced math and science courses, I needed trig. This book helped me to "get" it, finally, and be able to solve trigonometric problems. It's very clear, up-to-date, and well-written.

This is the novelization of the TV episode of "Gun on Ice Planet Zero." It faithfully recreates the story of the daring raid by the Galactica crew to destroy the massive Ravishol Pulsar weapon that is about to destroy the Colonial fleet. Glen Larson and Robert Thurston do a good job in fleshing out the characters and adding in a few twists to the plot of this original 2-part tv episode. The character of Croft, the leader of the criminal demolitions team, really gets the treatment in this book. He comes across as an inidividual who has real depth and emotion. In fact, much of the book is told from his point of view. Of course, fans of the show will recognize what happens in the story except for a few little things that are changed, of course. The biggest thing is the ending, with Croft hanging from a wire attached to a stolen Cylon raider trying to rescue Boxey who is a stowaway in a remote-controlled Cylon ship!!! Unbelievable!!! But it still makes a good read for all of us who knew and loved this late '70's sci-fi show. If you like Battlestar Galactica, get all of these novels and relive the show like you never have before. Great fun.

The book is always better than the movie or the episode

Well very intertaining. I couldn't keep my nose out of it, I found it in the thrift shop, a rare find indeed. Starbuck and Apollo at their best, and of course the normal action of the series. When my Dad saw me reading this book, he said that sometimes he'd watch it on the T.V, and he didn't turn it off. Which means the series were good, because it doesn't take alot for my dad to turn the switch. The plot was entertaining, and the humor was good. Read it, you wont regret it.

this book has too much redundant info and lacks coherence. try the jxta in a nutshell instead; to the point, simple and clear.

Peer-to-peer (P2P) has progressed from a curiosity to a serious opportunity for businesses to move beyond the costs and limitations of traditional client-server based computing. With a choice of several new, maturing technologies, Java developers need a single source to explain the benefits of each technology and help them see how to fit the P2P "pieces" together - both in building new systems and integrating with existing ones. Java P2P Unleashed: With JXTA, Web Services, XML, Jini, JavaSpaces, and J2EE starts with a discussion of the P2P architecture, referencing similarities with existing, familiar systems while previewing several types of P2P applications. Java P2P Unleashed explains how to plan ahead for security, routing, performance and other issues when developing a P2P application. Each Java P2P technology is approached from a P2P perspective, focusing on implementation concerns Java developers will face while using them. The last section includes several large-scale examples of different P2P applications - managing content, building communities, integrating services, routing messages, and using intelligent agents to gather information. The final chapter looks ahead to future developments in Java P2P technologies, including the use of J2ME. Java P2P Unleashed is confidently recommended for Intermediate to Advanced level users. 752 pages.

This book's title is a bit misleading, as it covers a lot more than P2P. In addition to JXTA, it also has chapters on Jini, and several chapters on Web services. Some of the chapters are better than others; the chapters on JXTA are especially informative. Because the book has many authors, some of the information is repeated, but that does not detract from the book's overall high quality.

I believe that Kidnapped is one of the books that will keep the reader at the edge of his seat. Kidnapped is a book, which is suitable for all children and adults. No matter how many times you have read it, you will want to read it over and over. Adventure, suspense and treachery, Kidnapped has all of it.
The adventure starts with David Balfour, a young boy whose father has just recently passed away. David inherits his will and sets off to claim it. Upon claiming his inheritance, he meets his uncle. His uncle obviously wanted the inheritance, kidnapped David in a ship and sets him off far away. David survives the shipwrecked and is rescued by Alan, a dare devil rogue. There they built a long lasting friendship and together, escapes to freedom. In the end, courage, hope and believing in faith help David to his destination.
To end this paragraph, Kidnapped is a must read book for those who love suspense, adventure and treachery. The book makes the reader as if he's David Balfour and has to escape to freedom.

Let me tell you now that 'Kidnapped' is my personal favourite, and I've already read it four times! You'll never get a moment to pause to take a yawn. R.L. Stevenson with his superb writing capabilities writes of a young man named David Balfour. When his father dies, he is told to go to his uncle's house. After several failed attempts to kill David the wicked uncle sells him off to a skipper of a ship. In the course of his stay on the ship David meets the Jacobite, Alan. I can't describe the novel in words you gotta read it to know what you are really in for! This is the greatest adventure novel I've ever read. If you have read Stevenson's 'Treasure Island' then you won't be disappionted with this one.

I missed this one as a kid, which is too bad, because I think I would have appreciated it then as well. Set following the failed Scottish rebellion, 'Kidnapped' tells the story of young David Balfour, whose greedy uncle tries to cheat him out of his inheritance by having him kidnapped and sold in the American colonies as a slave. On the way, however, he befriends a Jacobite rebel and is instead caught up in the Scottish troubles and has to fight his way back to his home and claim his inheritance. The adventure is all the more exciting because it feels like such a real world with all the careful place-related detail Stevenson employs. While the language can be difficult in places, that quickly fades once you get into the rhythm of the book.

I'm studying out of this book for my intermediate micro course. Simply put, the text is good (but unremarkable) for what it is: a no-nonsense bridge between the usual undergraduate principles course and graduate course in microeconomic theory. However, I can't help but feel that Frank skims off too much math in the name of accessibility. This won't help the reader looking to go further in the subject, i.e., grad or b-school. This would be okay if the appendices packed the math, but this isn't the case: the appendices are on-line at the publisher's web site, which pretty much means if you want to follow the math, you need to be near a computer. A somewhat "mathier" text, that I highly recommend, is the latest edition of Varian's Intermediate Microeconomics.

A must for who is genuinely interested in UNDERSTANDING and ENJOY the basis of neo-classical theory. Better than any other other book!

It's rare to find a text as enjoyable to read as Frank's in any subject, let alone microeconomics. The reader looking for the standard calculus-based, mathematical approach to micro should look elsewhere (Jehle and Reny is a great place to start). That's simply not the point of this text--the point is to provide the insight behind the models, as well as to promote critical thinking about the shortcomings of the traditional assumptions economists make. This text, combined with Jehle and Reny if one desires rigor as well, provides FAR more than any other single or multiple text combination available.

This is the best book i ever found on data structures.It starts from the real english language and moves on to the pseudocode and c++ code efficiently.The algorithms are real good.Many real world examples are given.The book is certainly worth its price.

This book was required reading for my second quarter C++ computer science class. Of the three data structure books I have read, this was the easiest to read. Furthermore, it has plenty of good, usable data structure code. This book is NOT for people who don't know how to program in C++. This is the BEST book I have read for learning data structures in C++. The data structure code in the other two books were not as good, because they left too many of the data structures as exercises for the reader.

This book separates the wheat from the chaff, as far as programmers go. The fundamental data structures and algorithms covered here are items that any C++ programmer NEEDS to know to be successful, and the way it is presented is, in my opinion, quite clear. Don't start on this text until you have a strong familiarity with C++ fundamentals, however. Check yourself using the C++ Fundamentals appendix provided in the text to be sure you're clear on these. As I stated before, this text separates the wheat from the chaff, delving into the specific usage of all that C++ syntax you learned as a newbie. Newbies have trouble with this book, because it actually requires some work, and thought. Study to understand and learn, and this book and it's contents will serve you well.

We have the paperback version of this book. I never imagined that it was an actual "book"; I thought it was just a gimic book that the company sold through its cereal. Having said that, it's not a bad book.

First, the book counts from one to ten, with one number per page. Each page has the number, a picture of that number of Cheerios, a rhyming verse containing the number, and a picture of a different kind of fruit, also demonstrating the number. The rhymes are OK, but not quite natural. As we read each page, I like to count the number of Cheerios. In doing so it's hard to keep the rhyme going. Also, if we stop to notice (or count) the fruit, the rhyme tends to get lost.

Next, the book counts from eleven to twenty on two facing pages. There's lots of fruit to see here, too. The next two pages count to 100 by tens, with the second page having (what I assume to be) one hundred Cheerios on it. Zero is the number on the last page: it "is the number you get when you're done."

This last quote brings me to a likely picky point. The book uses contractions. For this reason, it probably won't serve double duty as an easy reader.

This is very cute. I think it is a great way to introduce children to counting by ones and counting by tens through manipulatives. And this comes from someone who doesn't like to buy into free advertising (in other words to have cheerio shoved down my child's eyes when I buy the book). But this is a great book.

Two thoughts- we have another cheerio book that has the place to put the cheerios as a little hole and my son likes that better. And, although the cover of this book lays flat, the pages do not. I had to put a little crease in the pages back by the spine so they would lay flat. This way my son's cheerios (or fakios) won't slip off the page.

Cute book though.

Enjoy.

My son loves food and this book is his first book that he will listen to and look at the pictures. He LOVES it!

I read this book in college and it inspired me to try and see every major league ballpark during my lifetime. I am very excited to have bought it from Amazon and added it to my library. The rating system will appeal to both the diehard and casual baseball fan. I especially like his ranking of the concessions and highlighting any unique or local foods that are served. Although this book is out of print and somewhat outdated as new parks start to replace the classics, it is still a good addition to any baseball fan's collection.
(...)

I first read this book when it orginally came out. As a baseball fan It was awesome. Bob Wood lived every true baseball fans dream to see them all. I felt like I was riding along with Bob through out the whole book and his adventures.

I read this book in the late 80's and have re read it. It is the ultimate baseball fans road trip. I could just imagine myself riding along with Bob as went to see them all.