Decent overviews but... A lot of pages devoted Bruce Lee and Japanese Samuri stuff. Goodly amount of pictures and info but I found lots of mistakes and the literary emphasis is on cinematic development rather than who is in what and when. This book is more for the person interested in the Martial Arts movie as an art form rather than someone who wants to know what is good to rent.

This book will be of interest to former Fulbright exchange scholars in particular and to those interested in international education and cross cultural exchange more generally.

This is a book that will be a usefull tool for the clinician that has to deal with a pregnant patient. Remembering the changes that take place in pregnancy, and particular relations between pregnancy and medical complications can be a very stressfull situation. The obstetrician will also take advantage of this textbook, as many presenting diseases and their management are exposed in detail.

Mirrorstone is a good book that my son & I enjoyed reading. The illustrations are really superb. The story line is good and gripping at times. My son (7 yrs old) liked the book, but I thought that while the story was good, it could've been improved upon and little more thought through.
The storyline is about a modern boy who was brought into the past to retrieve the mirrorstone (magical mirror). Without giving too much of the plot, I think that given the basic storyline and the characters created to fullfill that story line, there could've been much more room for character development.
But even said all that, I thing that this book is one of the better "non chapter" books for young children. The illustrations are breath-taking (even as adult I enjoyed looking through the book), the holograms are really well done, and the story line, while not very complex, still point certain things out to the children.

Thomas Szasz is a champion of individual autonomy and personal responsibility. This is his primary value.

Szasz is also regarded by some as "the most controversial psychiatrist in the world." He displays the fearless courage to question the most fundamental tenets of the entire "profession" of psychiatry.

Because of the volume of Szasz's writings - some 20 books and over 400 published articles - authors Richard Vatz (professor of rhetoric) and Lee Weinberg (professor of legal studies) have done us a great service by including Sasz's main ideas in one volume. Furthermore, to achieve balance, they've included some important critiques of Szasz's work.

Szasz's first major contention is that "mental illness" is a myth. Szasz does not deny the occurrence of unusual, unconventional, and destructive thought, communication, and behavior - and the resulting suffering - generally included under the "mental illness" umbrella. He does take issue with the semantics: the definitions, who gains from the definitions, and who loses as a result of them.

According to the authors, "To Szasz, the use of strategic metaphors - especially the camouflaged use of such metaphors - deprives humankind of its greatest freedom: autonomy. Unlike religious and democratic political persuaders who claim no false identity and implicitly recognize man's autonomy, psychiatrists present themselves as scientists and explicitly deny the right of autonomy to those whom they choose to define and control."

Szasz claims that as a result of psychiatric definitions, psychiatrits - as well as the political system through them - gain the power to effectively "convict" people, incarcerate them, and subject them to involuntary "drug treatment" and other forms of dehumanization, without trial, judge, or jury.

Another of Szasz's major contentions is that "deviant behavior is freedom of choice." To Szasz, autonomy implies that individuals own their own bodies and should be free to do with them whatever they like, provided they don't harm others. This includes taking drugs and comitting suicide.

In my opinion, one of Szasz's geatest contributions to humanity is his revelation of how words and definitions are used to gain power over others and effectively enslave them. Authors Vatz and Weinberg were remiss in that they did not include a chapter on this topic, particularly seeing that Szasz wrote two books on it: 'The Second Sin' and 'Heresies.'

Also, in my opinion, Vatz and Weinberg are mistaken in the above quote where they say, "Unlike religious and democratic political persuaders who claim no false identity and implicitly recognize man's autonomy..." Many religious leaders demand all kinds of obedience which deny man's autonomy. Some claim special identities with characteristics like "papal infallibility."

Similarly, most political leaders operate in the name of government with the special identity of having the power to solve all kinds of problems mere mortals can't handle. Most political persuaders explicitly deny man's autonomy: "You may not commit suicide"; "You may only put into your body what we permit."

In 'Heresies' Szasz wrote: "This is what poets and politicians, psychotics and psychiatrists, therapists and theologians have in common: they all deal with metaphors that sustain the dignity and lives of some and destroy those of others; and they all deal with metaphors mendaciously..."

Despite this one shortcoming, authors Vatz and Weinberg have done an excellent job in encapsulating Szasz's central ideas in one volume. They handle the closely related issues of personal autonomy and individual responsibility particularly well.

I highly recommend this book, particularly for anyone interested in freedom and its destruction.

Frederick Mann

Although not intended specifically for living history, this is an excellent work for the American Civil War Re-enactor who is getting started and wishes to strive for historical accuracy in a cavalry role. The period pictures and accounts show all types of uniforms, weapons, gear and procedures that a new cavalryman would need to know. The book also makes good contrasts between different gear at different stages in the war, so you can illustrate the difference between a volunteer in 1861 vice a regular in 1865. At first, I wasn't sure if the gear I had purchased from a sutler was correct, but after seeing this book, I now know that it was, and exactly how to wear and use it.
It is also a good read for the general history buff, with many good color paintings mixed in with period B&W photos.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon deserves a more thorough look at its production, cast, and impact on modern cinema. The essays are informative if very short. One in particular is helpful since it lists many worthwhile films from Asia that would be of interest to fans of CTHD.

Reading the screenplay is of little interest, since you can watch the DVD or video.

...The music is wonderful.

the book does not tell you much about the actors, the director, the genre, or other related subjects. its okay to browse through while your at a bookstore but not for purchase.

This is a GREAT book... It includes the screenplay of the film, which, is nice to read once in awhile when not watching the DVD. It's filled w/ wonderful photos from the movie and set, and has many quotes and commentaries from actors and Ang Lee about certain situations while filming... and about the film. It's very entertaining to read, but I just wish there was more information about the actors included in the pages. There are comments about them and their performances here and there... and the quotes are great, but the background info on all of the actors is just not there. But all dedicated crouching tiger fans should get it, b/c it's just so nicely laid out and is such good quality. I mean, who cares if they leave a little out? It's so fun to look at!

The title of the second volume of collected StormWatch issues, StormWatch: Lightning Strikes, is a reference to the electrical powers of Jenny Sparks, one of the members that Warren Ellis created upon his assumption of the writing chores on this book. It's a good reference to make, because although this collection spotlights several StormWatch members in turn, the issue devoted to her back story is your reason to buy this volume.

These StormWatch collections chronicle Ellis's dismantling of a superhero team that, prior to his arrival, could arguably be viewed as an example of how bad things got in mainstream comics in the Nineties. While the first volume was sort of Ellis's short sharp shock to the StormWatch status quo, this volume is his meditation on how screwed up both the world and its heroes really are.

One story details Jack Hawksmoor's hunt for a federally protected madman is disturbing and absurdist to the nth degree. Another tells how Battalion's single-handed defeat of an anti-government militia group in Jacksonville, Alabama still can't earn respect or safety for the black man in a racist society. In a different story, the very logic of the dangerous presence of superhumans amongst 'normals' is challenged while the members of StormWatch Black, Red and Prime discover on an awkward night of bar-hopping that they can barely stand to be around each other outside of a crisis.

But while these stories are interesting, the real meat is in Jenny's recounting of her previously unknown history. Turns out she's as old as the twentieth century (these stories originally appeared in 1996-97) and her 'adventures' as a superhero through the years drove her to alcoholism and retirement by the Eighties. If that sounds a bit histrionic, just wait until you find out what she witnessed along the way -- it's surprising that she stuck around at all.

All of this is calculated to lay the final groundwork in the reader's mind for the need to further alter the group's dynamic, while strengthening StormWatch's global jurisdiction. As Weatherman, the group's Machiavellian altruist says, "Our world holds too many secrets, and too many of those secrets are lethal to us". As upcoming volumes are sure to tell, uncovering the world's secrets makes you very unpopular with the wrong people.

I've been avoiding discussing the artwork in this volume because frankly, it's god-awful. Rather than rising to the challenge of Ellis's mature scripts, Tom Raney's work is visibly worse than before. A fill-in/return by series creator Jim Lee for the last installment of this volume is all full-page illustrations with Weatherman's after-the-fact report to the U.N. Special Security Council as the only narrative. The report's dry sarcasm and contempt for its audience reads like a reflection of Ellis's own contempt of the superheroic shtick he's deconstructing. I wonder if his boss knew he was being made fun of at the time? Or ever?

In short, don't buy this collection for the art, and don't read it if you like your superheroes simple and pure. Buy it if you want to witness Warren Ellis dance on the graves of your adolescent fantasies. Sound disturbing? Ask Jenny Sparks about 'disturbing'.

I love Jenny Sparks.

The 100-year-old woman made of electricity. "The Spirit of the 20th Century". Call her what you will... but I love her. I know what you're thinking, too: another comic geek with a crush on an imaginary woman. Why not just get him spayed now? Well, while there's some validity to the latter part of that statement, I'm not obsessed with Ms. Sparks because she wears tight, revealing spandex or has watermelon breasts. Quite the opposite, actually. I think she may be one of the best characters created in comics recently, simply for the fact she has none of these so-called 'attributes'. Jenny's smart, funny, beautiful and wise, and, while she's too old to come off as anything but a hardened cynic, the very reason she's joined StormWatch contradicts that outward shell: she wants to make a better world (That, and she's one of the few characters in comics history allowed a dignified ending--- see Authority #12).

So, in the midst of all this adoration, I'm tempted to say that this entire book is worth the price of admission just for the chapter focusing on Jenny. But there's more, lucky us.

Of the five issues collected in this edition, nearly all deal with an individual member of StormWatch. The first focuses on Jack Hawksmoor, the man who speaks to cities, investigating something that appears to be a politically-motivated murder, but turns out to be something else entirely. The third chapter deals with Jackson King (formerly Battalion, the angry black man with big guns... X-Men's Bishop, anyone?), who is kidnapped by American isolationist terrorists who resent StormWatch's presence in their country. Chapter Four is titled "Rose Tattoo", after the mute assassin whom Weatherman Henry Bendix recruited to the team, but keeps her under armed guard whenever she's not in action. While the bulk of the story actually deals with a group of StormWatch officers (Jenny's among them, thank god) participating in what may be the first-ever planetary bar-hop, the action surrounding Rose shows us a chilling side of Weatherman that will become more evident in the next volume. Chapter five is a collection of big, loud splash pages of pure action, no dialogue (just the odd caption), as members of StormWatch: Prime and Red battle a cave of ancient alien predators. This chapter is illustrated by SW co-creator and comics superstar Jim Lee. Hence, the story may give you headaches, but the art more than makes up for it.

Then... there's chapter two. Jenny Sparks tells her life story to Jackson King. And what a life it is. Fans of Planetary, Ellis' current WildStorm title which delves into comics' history with a wink and a nudge, will doubtless enjoy the hell out of this chapter. Jenny's life story is illustrated in the styles of comics from each respective era she describes. Siegel & Shuster. Eisner. Swan. Kirby. Robert Crumb (!). Neal Adams (er... I think, anyway). Tom Raney even does Dave Gibbons, in a particularly effective Watchmen homage. This is the history of comics in 24 pages, folks, complete with Jenny Sparks' trademark 'don't f--- with me' attitude and with an ending that's perfect in summing up who Jenny -- and the literal spirit of the twentieth century --- is.

Tom Raney really outdoes himself on the art in this edition, creating dead-on facial expressions in Ch.4, the fast-paced action of ch.3, and the evocative artist homages in Ch.2.

Don't be misled: this book DOES "count". There are definitely plot elements, in "Rose Tattoo" and "Battalion" that carry into Change or Die, and tie back to Force of Nature, respectively; and though I run the risk of beating this matter to death, Jenny Sparks' life story is not to be missed.

Although I harped on StormWatch: Force of Nature for being too episodic, this edition doesn't bother me as much, even though it's, by nature, more episodic. It's mostly the fact that these stories aren't as much 'standard superhero fare' as the stories in Force of Nature. Lightning Strikes reads like an album of fast-paced and fun pop singles, that are more action/intrigue-oriented than focusing on superhero adventure.

It's all that and a history lesson from the oldest superwoman on the planet. I ask you, what more could you want from your comics, kids?

For fans of "The Authority" (the book which "StormWatch" eventually grew into), this volume presents the first appearances of some of the team's strongest members. It is in "Lightning Strikes" that we learn the history of Jack Hawksmoor, Jenny Sparks, and Shen.

Yes, the stories in this book are more episodic than the other three tpbs, but the history laid out here is a must read for current fans.

Admittedly, I start many books in the middle, and so it was with Forbidden Archeology. My disappointment began when I read the chapter on "ape men" and the possible survival of bigfoot-like hominids well into the modern era. While I'm not completely closed to the idea, the section smacked of pseudo-science: little better than the Bigfoot books of the 1970s and filled with dubious eye witness accounts and third-hand facts. Given all the silliness and exploitation within crypto-zoology over the years, we need a bit more than what the authors provide to take this seriously.

And so it is for much of this book. Cremo and Thompson have collected a great deal of material, some if contradictory, much of is dubious, and crafted a thesis which is difficult to trust. That's a shame, because there is more than enough fascinating, legitimate material on anomalous discoveries to easily fill a book this size.

(This is an edit of my previous review which has mysteriously reverted to "a reader.")

A level-headed, painstakingly researched tome documenting the systematic suppression of paleontological evidence militating against currently popular theories of human evolution. A chilling, non-sensationalistic look at the "sloppiness" and general lack of integrity of members of the scientific establishment who, in their devotion to defending the current models of human origins, reject or ignore unwelcome data - much of it seemingly impeccably researched - that would throw much of their field into (even more) utter confusion.

It is hilarious and tragic to see this book being ridiculed by "reviewers" who have obviously never read it, but another symptom of the close-mindedness of the keepers of evolutionist dogma, as lamented by Richard Milton ("Shattering the Myths of Darwinism"). Now that their religion has been debunked by Behe's "Darwin's Black Box," it remains to be seen their level of true scientific curiosity as regards Cremo & Thompson's findings.

There are the howls about Cremo's religion. Do they reject Newtonian physics because of Newton's creationist beliefs? Do they likewise pooh-pooh the contributions of Lister, Pasteur, Boyle, Maxwell, Peirce? Cremo admits his beliefs up front, and never do they impinge on his detailed, sober analyses in this book. They would do better to reject Darwinism ("[T]he literalists are absolutely right. Evolution is a religion" - M. Ruse, atheist), a religion whose adherents see fit to fit false feet to fossils ("Lucy" was modeled with human feet and hands for public consumption although she was known to have had apelike ones).

Any objective reading will show that Cremo is ironically more scientific than his detractors, and has a thorough grasp of the subject matter.

The sheer volume and detailed discussion of "anomalous" data compiled in this book is staggering: traces of the hand of man (tools, etc.) found in strata millions of years before his supposed appearance on the evolutionary scene; off-the-cuff dismissals of such evidence by influential scientists for sometimes contradictory reasons (and sometimes almost none at all!); the findings of distinguished, top-notch scientists ridiculed and being branded as heresy for going against the prevailing dogma.

It is instructive that most scientists today are totally unaware of the controversial evidence presented here, even in their fields of specialty. If we are able to do as the authors ask and evaluate the evidence as it stands without prejudice against their (eastern) religious beliefs, we might well find that the underpinnings for their belief in the great antiquity of the human race is at least as solid as that of the ruling paradigm - and probably even more so. Even if we do not agree with their conclusions (I don't), an open-minded inquiry into these findings will certainly show current theories to be, at best, seriously negligent in blissful ignorance - Mr. Magoo in a lab coat - or, at worst, anti-science.

Remember, Piltdown was "scientifically" worshipped as our ancestor for near 40 years. Whereas science may be self-correcting, evolutionists are obviously somewhat deficient in this regard.

"Forbidden Archeology" is a superb, well-documented compendium of both the evidence favoring the conventional picture of human evoluton, and the anomalous evidence that casts this picture into doubt.

Its larger significance, however, lies in its detailed documentation and analysis of one particular exampe of a disturbing phenomenon that has increasingly crippled mainstream science: the establishment of a new scientific orthodoxy, i.e. a quasi-religious belief by leading scientists in the absolute and unquestionable validity of the basic theories of their field. These theories are then elevated to "facts" of which any dissenter is accused of being ignorant, which makes for a convenient, easy dismissal of any anomalous evidence. Since any such evidence is thus automatically ineligible for publication in the proper journals, this lack of documentation is then in turn taken by researchers in the field as proof that the evidence must be of low scientific value.

With "Forbidden Archeology", Cremo and Thompson have attempted to break through this self-perpetuating cycle of ignorance and denial. The many angry dismissals by "experts" one can read on this page shows that they have done their job well. A truly educational book that will open the eyes of many who are searching for the true origins of humankind. Those who don't have the time or patience to peruse this 900-page tome should consider reading the abridged version instead. Either way, they will come to appreciate one of the fundamental tenets of true science: theory never overrides evidence.

I recently purchased the above book, somewhat in desperation, as I was detecting conflicting information regarding the installation and configuration of MS Cluster Server (MSCS.) Unfortunately, I made a poor choice in purchasing the book. What the author skimped on was the actual installation of MSCS.

While there isn't room to detail every omission here, the most serious of blunders occurs during his step by step install procedure where he mistakenly tells the reader that the MS Cluster installer is asking for the IP address of the NT workstation that will administer this cluster. This is in fact the IP address of the Cluster itself. This is a serious mistake and will result in the reader giving the IP address of another NT workstation to the Cluster which will ultimately cause an IP conflict.

Personally, I would recommend reading the MS documentation several times rather than this book

Having 'played' around with MSCS for 1 year now on NT4 I'm still looking for good sources of reference for this technology, and unfortuneatly this is not it! In a lot of cases his explanations are very basic, and a lot of his examples don't make sense, and in some cases have serious errors. There is also far too much information that is not relevent to MSCS (have 32 pages of a registry dump with little explanation is not very useful!) After waiting months for this book to appear I was disappointed at the content, particularly when it turned up without the CD

If you are currently running MSCS, you may find this book useful. Otherwise, look elsewhere.

This book is invaluable to me for it's section on troubleshooting. Believe me, when you have trouble with your cluster, this is likely the only place you will find an answer, or perhaps a glimmer of a clue, without calling Microsoft and getting their so called engineers (more like web-knowledge-base users) some more job security.

The section on clustering is good for a primer/refresher, and the installation section should ONLY be used as a guide in understanding why MSCS works. I would not recommend creating your first (or any) cluster with this section. You should KNOW how to create your cluster before doing so. DO NOT depend on a book to hold your hand on creating your cluster. LEARN this stuff any way you can, then when armed with sufficient understanding and skills, go for it.