I read this book whilst travelling across Europe by train (23hrs). Reading the book prompted me to indulge in people watching as time went by, it was quite apparent that we are what we eat and no matter how much our current eating habits suit our life-style, they are not necessarily compatible with our bodies.

The message in the book to return our diet to a more balanced and less refined basis is well described in the title "Breaking the food chain". Obesity and poor diet through excess appear to be the scurge of the industrisized nations. The book simply sets out a framework to allow you to move to a healthier diet and change your taste for food for ever.

I found this book fascinating. It was homespun and easy to read, but filled with scientific fact that supported the authors contentions. This book gave a simple practical way to have a healthy diet based on traditional foods. Mr. Chou explained why this type of diet is healthier both from a historic view and a modern view. So much of what is "traditional" turns out to be the best, because it has withstood the test of time. Mr. Chou in an interesting narrative style explains some of the modern scientific basis for this.

Taken from PARAMETERS, US Army War College Quarterly, Winter 2000-01, Vol. XXX, No. 4

Three New Looks at China © by Larry M. Wortzel

In China and the People's Liberation Army, Solomon M. Karmel expands the thesis of an earlier writer from the United Kingdom, Gerald Segal, arguing that China is a weak power, not a superpower or great power. Karmel starts out by quoting a Chinese text, The Chinese People's Liberation Army (Deng Liqun, et al., Beijing, 1994), which argues that to be a superpower, a nation must possess four qualities: a large, diversified national economy; a major conventional military force; a nuclear weapons capability (and the means to deliver the weapons); and a strategic geographical location. He then systematically argues throughout the book that "in China's case, the dilemmas of development are simply too great for the state to exert the type of great power influence over East Asia that the Soviet Union exerted over Eastern Europe and its many satellite states throughout the world." He believes that "China's security and freedom from occupation threats in the postwar period have done little to enhance its power over other states." It is Karmel's thesis that those who argue that China is a great power are misinformed, and those who believe China is a military threat are crying wolf. Having defined his terms carefully in the initial chapter of the book, Karmel goes on to justify his thesis in subsequent chapters relying on extensive primary-source research in Chinese-language publications and Western secondary sources.

In six well-argued chapters, Karmel systematically dismantles China's military force structure, which he views as weak and poorly integrated; its military-industrial complex, which he characterizes as anemic and plagued by inefficiencies and corruption; the defense budget, which he believes is wasting a lot of money on the wrong priorities; and the role of China in Asia, which he defines as increasing in power but still inadequate to qualify China for great-power status. This is a readable book. Its weakness is that it is supported by research that is full of glaring inaccuracies which seem to reflect a lack of familiarity with the military in general and with the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) in particular.

The author is simply wrong when he explains the force structure of the PLA, saying that the seven regional military commands, analogous to the unified commands of the United States, are subordinate to the army. They are not. The military regional commands of the PLA are subordinate to the General Staff Department and the Central Military Commission. They are joint, and although the ground forces dominate them, they are jointly commanded and structured. The author is also wrong in his characterization of the development of the General Armaments Department from the Commission of Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defense (COSTIND). Karmel argues that COSTIND turned into a structure of state-owned military-civilian defense industries under a State Science and Technology Commission. In fact, when the General Armaments Department was created, it took over much of the military production, research, and development. However, some production did stay under the old COSTIND, but was more centrally controlled by the state. Harlan Jencks, whom Karmel quotes extensively, has called the new organization SCOSTIND, for "State COSTIND."

In other areas, Karmel's careful culling of sources to prove his thesis has missed such PLA authors as Li Qingshan and Li Jijun, who have published extensively on joint warfare, military production, and strategy. Karmel also fails to credit the PLA for its earlier successes in doctrinal and force structure modernization based on the PLA's study of US Army Field Manual 100-5, on warfighting doctrine, and a thorough review of the US lessons learned from the 1991 Gulf War.

To respond to some of Karmel's arguments suggesting China is a weak power, one needs only to remember that at the mere suggestion that "relations with China would be difficult," the Clinton Administration refused to approve badly needed air and cruise missile defenses for Taiwan. When China suggested that "it would not be good for relations," the Republic of Korea opted not to participate in research on theater missile defenses in Asia with the United States. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) regional forum (ARF) was formed primarily to respond to China. Vietnam is seeking a new form of security relationship as a balance against China. With regard to Karmel's claim that China's military industry is poor in general, although it does have its problems it managed to supply Pakistan with a nuclear and ballistic missile capability, it managed to build a force of approximately 400 ballistic missiles for use against Taiwan in a relatively short period, and it has managed to produce a strategic nuclear force capable of hitting the United States. The threat of force from China has deterred elected leaders of Taiwan from scheduling a referendum on national sovereignty and self-determination. And in the United Nations, China has a veto in the Security Council as a permanent member. This reviewer has not accomplished the extensive literature search of Solomon Karmel to define "great power status" versus "superpower status," but all of this evidence suggests that China's power seems great.

If one is going to read Karmel's work, it should at least be read in conjunction with other texts by authors far more familiar with militaries in general and the PLA in particular.

Solomon M. Karmel, a former tenured lecturer at the London School of Economics and now an adjunct professor at the Naval War College, asks in his book on Chinese power and the Chinese army: '[I]s China a great power, on a path that may soon challenge... Asian... and perhaps even US national security interests? Or does China more resemble a struggling developing state, consumed by security problems on the home front and enervated even by half-hearted power-projection efforts beyond its poorly defined borders?' Karmel criticizes many who would argue for the great power thesis and shows in four supporting chapters focused on the People's Liberation Army (PLA) how China's weaknesses dictate a limited role for the army outside of domestic politics.

'Great power' militaries rarely have to worry about stability in their capitals and government power centers, but China's largest post-Mao military action was the suppression of students on Tiananmen Square. Great powers have well-defined borders, unlike China, which is still consumed with the Taiwan question, the Tibet question, and instability in its Muslim northwest. Great powers further can concern themselves with 'power projection' and alliances with friends or proxy states, but China has no allies and participates in international military actions far less than regional players such as India and Australia. Karmel defines 'military professionalism' for the purpose of the study, and suggests that the PLA's organizational structure, clarity of mission, and levels of corruption all help to ensure that an army originally designed to 'liberate' Chinese is still focused on debilitating and parochial interventions in Chinese politics. Finally, China's strategies are rapidly moving away from outdated Maoist 'People's War' conceptions but are still not as innovative as one might expect from a rising power. Primarily, China's military leadership is said to benchmark 'more advanced' Western doctrines and to measure itself as forever falling short due to pre-existing handicaps and limited, misdirected funds.

Karmel's conclusion is particularly interesting in light of the allied war in neighboring Afghanistan in 2001-2002. Afghanistan was threatening as a result of the Taliban's inability to achieve any measure of rational-legal legitimacy in a capitalist world, and the weaknesses of the regime created a fertile ground for Al Qaida's terrorism. So the threat to the immense power of the US was weakness rather than strength or any Afghani claims to 'great power'. Similarly, Karmel cautions, while China is not a great power, 'China's weaknesses, for decades, may be far more threatening than its strengths.' So, for example, Chinese worker unrest might be more likely to spark the next 'Asia crisis' than a Mainland effort to retake Taiwan. Karmel even welcomes further advances in Chinese governance that might further Chinese power, suggesting that these advances are likely only in a context of further domestic political and economic liberalization. It is also interesting that while China fears US intervention in the affairs of developing countries, it welcomed the US intervention in Afghanistan and was, as usual during the reform period, a passive player in a nearby conflict.

Karmel's supporting chapters on Chinese military strategy, force structure, military-industrial complex, and defense spending are loaded with hundreds of footnotes from Chinese government sources, including 'internal circulation only' documents. The information on defense spending is likely to be most quickly dated, and on force structure most lasting. Generally, the book is recommended to students of international and Asian security, civil-military relations in developing countries, and Chinese politics.

The authors have done fine job in highlighting the chinese aviation industry.This book details chinese advances to cover the large technological gap vis a vis the west and the U.S but also points out the inherent weaknesses in the present day avaiation industry. The strategic concept of Chinese AirForce is also well researched.Overall a good book for milatary enthusiast!

As you can always expect from RAND, the research work is excellent.

One cannot analyze an Air Force's current state and future without understanding its past. "China's Air Force Enters The 21st Century" gives valuable insights about PLAAF's history, structure, and past trends. The fact that detail study on PLAAF in English is relatively rare, makes this book even more valuable.

The book is divided into nine chapters.
Ch 1- Introduction
Ch 2- Discussion of PLAAF's Strategy from a historical perspective.
Ch 3- This chapter is about PLAAF's various operations from beginning till the 1958 Taiwan Strait Crisis.
Ch 4- History from 1960 to Vietnam War.
Ch 5- The period 1970s to 1981.
Ch 6- Everything after the 80s.
Ch 7- PLAAF's training.
Ch 8- Structure and programs.
Ch 9- Conclusions.

Of course, a lot of things had happened since the publication of this book in 1995. On military equipment alone, we saw the confirmation of the Su-27SK's local production, the acquisition of Su-30MKK, introduction of the JH-7A, more information leaks on J-10, depolyment of S-300... so on. Hence, further in-depth assessments must be made about PLAAF. However, this isn't the book's fault, as military analysis books and articles often become outdated as soon as they come out. "China's Air Force Enters The 21st Century" still serves as a good starting point, I recommand it to anyone who is interested in PLAAF.

This is a wonderful book about the Philippines! It is helpful if you are interested about the Philippines. The pictures are beautiful and give a sense of Filipino culture, geography, etc. I enjoyed reading it. Whether you are a kid or adult...I recommend this book to anyone!

The book is effective in giving an overall picture of the Philippines. Topics chosen are interesting and informative. The language of the book is very descriptive and the pictures are very good. It will give readers young and old alike a good picutre of what the Philippines is. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested to learn about Filipino culture.

My daughter has just entered Macalester College in St. Paul, MN. She has wanted to become a medical doctor since she was 13.

I have encouraged her to study molecular biology and computational biology as the best field to go into for the next 50 years of her life.

In 1968 my dad recommended that I go into computers, in order to be on the leading edge of the future throughout my working life. I followed my dad's advice.

I asked her what book she most wanted to read. She wanted a to find the best book on reforming the medical insurance because she believes that is the most important issue for the future. She is also interested in epidemeology.

I asked my dad to research the field of medical insurance and make a recommendation.

He recommended this book for my daughter. I have bought it for her and will make a followup recommendation once she has read the book.

this book gathers all the masters in this field to talk about the reforms in their countries, and let us know the thought and background of each country. therefore, i recommend this book.

I just returned to this book after an absence of some years, and discovered again one of its main attractions: there is no transliteration in this book! There is just Thai, written in Thai, and English, written in English.

I find it very useful for handwriting practice -- all the Thai is in a very nice, attractive, hand-written script. It also reinforces one of the hardest areas of the Thai language -- spelling Thai words.

You can discard all the remarks you may have heard about Thai writing being "easy" because it is "phonetic." This is not correct. Thai has MANY possibilities for spelling almost every word you hear, not to mention the fun of all the borrowed Pali and Sanskrit words with silent letters -- Thai spelling is just about as fun and baroque as English spelling, so the earlier you get cracking on it, the better. :-)

I am American-born and a beginner to the language. If you already have another text with the Thai alphabet, grammar rules, constants and vowel tables, and a guide for pronunciation, this book is the perfect complement. It helped me to read Thai correspondence, and to construct correspondence of my own. Its only shortcoming is that there are no index or dictionary appendix.

The book has a very strong emphasis on correct pronunciation of the basic sounds of the language. But it does this from a "first principles" approach -- they tell you the "t" sound is an alveolar plosive sound made by puffing out as much air as possible from the mouth with the tip of the tongue touched to your upper teeth (with diagram). But they never make any analogy to similar (in this case identical) sounds in english. For this reason alone, I cannot recommend this as a good way to start learning the language. The easiest way to start is to be told up front that while Chinese has many sounds you just don't hear in english, there are a lot that are identical and probably don't need any work on your part.

In addition to using terms like "labio-dental fricative" it also makes refernces in the text to certain vowel sounds that are only described by strange squiggly lines and greek letters. I presume that these mean something to a linguist, but this book gives no explanation for them.

To put the title in context, know that this book was last updated in 1971. They call the spelling system they use "Peking." It seems similar to pinyin, the standard that the rest of the world has settled on(even Chinese street signs), but I can't be sure that it is. This is another big black mark for the book -- I'm not sure that the way they spell things is the way everything else will.

All this said, it has taught me to pronounce things well. It covers traditional writing a little as well. Overall, unless you're a linguistics major, you should be able to find a more modern easier to use book.

I bought this book because many reviewers here gave highest rates. But since this book was written in 1971, they use some obsolete words (for example, Chinese people don't usually call each other "tongzhi" any more), and some Chinese characters shown in this book have been further simplified ever since, so you need to unlearn and relearn some stuff if you really want to learn "modern Chinese".

Also, some grammatical topics which should be covered in a basic course such as comparison are not covered. Overall, this is a good text for beginners, but you will need to supplement it with a more comprehensive and up-to-date text before going on to intermediate level.

The book is a western adoption of the 1963 edition of a Basic Course of Chinese for Foreigners, English version. (I happen to own the further enhanced 1971 original edition) The Latin transscription, approved already in 1958, is called PinYin today. The explanation of sounds employs the International Phonetic Alphabet, generally used in dictionaries and in language teaching. There are a couple of Chinese Characters, however, that have been further simplified after 1963. If you use the book along with something more modern, it can be value for money.

I've read the entire series so far, and it's INCREDIBLE! I admit I was a bit skeptical when I picked up the paperback and the cover/reviews of the book compared itself to Blade Runner and Dune; but it is true! The book was so engrossing that I felt like I was actually there! The characters in the whole series are very believable; there isn't really a black and white sence of good and evil (just as in real life).... between all the major characters. I will admit that it will probably be hard for the average American reader to follow all the characters with all of those different yet similar Chinese names and getting used to some of the Chinese dialoge (Just a few words, but I had to keep going to the back of the book where they were thankfully explained.) These were only very minor stumbling blocks for me, and shouldn't prevent the majority of people from enjoying this excellent series!

This is a political SF epic in the same vein as Dune, spiced with Chinese culture. Unlike Dune, it takes place in the near future (a couple of hundred years rather than thousands), so the society is somewhat more identifiable to the modern-day reader. Like Dune, it's filled with colorful characters and complex political intrigue deciding the fates of billions.

Although I woudn't quite rate the level of writing here as "literature", it's certainly higher than that of the bulk of popular novels, especially SF. Smooth sailing all the way. I found this book especially tough to put down- in addition to following the thrilling twists and turns of the plot, I was enthralled by the colorful descriptions of the future worldwide society saturated with Chinese culture.

Another feature which makes Chung Kuo stand out is the ambiguity of the characters and their causes. Initially, the two sides of the conflict seem pretty clear-cut. However, as the story progresses, we find that the line between good and evil is severely blurred, and ask the age-old question, "Does the end justify the means?". What feelings are brought out in the reader by an evil character fighting the good fight? A man of honor fighting to preserve an oppressive status (Chung) quo? [Sorry :) ] If you read this novel, you will find out.

Despite the (very) occasional moments of sexual depravity mentioned by other reviewers, I am eagerly looking forward to the second book in the series. (And the number of SF series which held my attention long enough to read more than one book can be counted on one hand.)

This series is fantastic. It is compared to Herbert, Asimov, etc. Frankly, I think it's better. The plot is gripping, almost without exception, to the point that my heart races when I'm reading it. The characters are complex, varied, and believable. The setting is ingenious; the breadth of the author's understanding of Chinese culture mind-boggling. I have read the series once already, about eight years ago; and now I'm through book III again.

As I read the other reviews, I see that for the most part readers either love it or hate it. The negative criticism I see includes the following: it is too complex, with too many characters; it is too violent, and sex especially is mixed with violence too often; and it is racist and sexist.

My response: indeed, the story is complex, but it is equally tight. If you enjoy--and can hold in your mind--a richly textured world, you will savor its breadth. If you want something less meaty, you won't have to look far: water covers most of the earth.

Next: the book is violent--graphically so. If you have a weak stomach, don't read it. The story is not all sugar and spice. It's a story of social and political revolution, not romance. Some of the characters are really nasty, and do really nasty things, just like real-life historical and contemporary characters. But in contrast are numerous scenes and episodes which are quite touching and beautiful; they are expressions of the author's depth of soul and endearing sense of humanity.

And the sex...well, much of it is violent, as (like it or not) it is in real life; but what the critics fail to acknowledge is the many sweet, truly romantic and beautiful episodes of love-making that are portrayed.

Likewise with the criticism that the book is sexist or racist: I suppose the reader will see that for which he or she is looking. Those who insist that the women in the book are degraded fail to remember the numerous heroines who impress the reader with their strength and intelligence; or they assume that the author's depiction of a patriarchal society is the description of his wished utopia.

Do not apologize, Mr. Wingrove. Your readers will either appreciate your achievement and thank you for not patronizing them; or they will condemn you for not giving them the politically-correct narcotic they desire.

I really expected a lot more from Brocade, being they are the market leader in switches. The book really lacks Design basics for SANS, and there are no revelations.

All of our field engineers carry a copy of this book. It is straightforward and is really the only resource out there other than the documentation and the Brocade web site.

This is by far the best book available on SAN design, and it is the only book that goes into specifics on configuring Brocade products, which is incredibly importnat considering their products are the most common. I found the generic SAN stuff increbibly useful and the Brocade specific stuff invaluable. I'm not sure what the 1-star reviews are about. I guess those guys know everything.

This book is just a celebration of Lien Ying Kuo.
Asolutely too much pages for celebration with family and relatives photos.
Just something (really something...) general and elementary instruction on tai chi practice.
The form.
Do you know the kind of tai chi book where the form is described with just a big picture on each page and with only the name of the posture? That's it.
Probably this book could have a very high emotional value for the pupills of Lien Ying Kuor (as it would also be for me if I were his pupill)but, absolutely, no any "Tai-Chi Chuan in Theory and Practice" in this book neither in theory nor in practice.

Kuo's book on tai chi chaun is an interesting look at his style of the martial art. The text of the book seems to be drawn mostly from the tai chi classics, though organized through the author's own understanding of the art. The photos included are good, and illustrate the postures of his tai chi form. This book also contains a brief introduction to Chinese philosophy as it relates to tai chi, which is useful for readers new to the subject. This book is not a training manual, but more of an overview of the style of tai chi practiced by the author.

Simmone, the wife of Kuo Lien Ying, is my professor at SFSU. She teaches Elementary Tai-Chi Chuan, Advanced Tai-Chi Chuan, and Shaolin Chuan on campus. This book is an excellent supplement to what she teaches and lectures. Tai-Chi is a very relaxing exercise. It teaches patience and concentration. Pick up this book if you feel you need that in your life.