I tasted McDonald's french fries in East Asia. That tastes better than in the US. American french fries are overfried.

An interesting tale of an importnat American icon. But, this book has little understanding of the local competitors that McDonalds and other foreign multinationals face in East Asia, many of whom are quite formidable. I recommend "New Asian Emperors" by George Haley et al. to understand the complex business environment in East Asia.

Most books dealing with the spread of American pop culture (and pop business) influences these days like Disney, Coca-Cola and McDonald's have very little good to say about the growth of any of them in previously unexposed markets. That's why, perhaps, it comes as surprising that "Golden Arches East" comes out with a mostly positive look at the effect McDonald's had had throughout East Asia.

In this book, five authors look at the impact McDonald's has had in five different East Asian entities: China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan. Much of the early chapters is given over to looking at the material aspects of McDonald's in East Asia: the marketing aspects, the reconceptualization towards a standard Asian consumer, the effect on the Asian food industry, etc.. All of this makes for very fascinating reading and shows just how marketing has to be changed from country to country (or even region to region). Likewise, it deals with very nuts-and-bolts issues of how McDonald's has impacted the lives of the average Asian consumer - and the impact is bigger than you'd think.

However, later chapters (especially those dealing with Taiwan and Korea and the Afterword) move to more conceptual issues of McDonald's - issues of modernity. Americanization and cultural identity. In an anthropological context (which is what this book tries to maintain), these are all very important, but somehow the later efforts seem to either fall flat or fall back on the line used so often in studying Asia these days, "But things are changing now".

While the overall message of this book is positive, there are the standard overtones of just how much the world has changed in the past half-century. I really recommend this book for the nuts-and-bolts stuff in the first two or three chapters, but the later didacticism tends to fall a little flat. Nonetheless, this book offers useful information to both the business student and the cultural anthropologist. If either East Asia or McDonald's interest you, I recommend giving this book a shot.

This is really a good book for Java Developers who wish to develop XML based applications. Couple of chapters have good examples and explains concepts in a very clear format. Also the book is upto date with all the latest concepts in XML world.

I have been working with XML for a while now, and this book offered a great coverage of most aspects of what XML application developers need to know. I am not able to keep up with everything happening in this very broad part of the industry - and this book provided enough coverage of the areas I'm not able to focus on on a regular basis to help me stay current. I'd recommend it for anyone who's working with specific areas within XML and want to stay current with the broader scope of what is going on. I'd also recommend it for anyone who is new to XML and wants to know the various Java APIs out there.

This is surely one of the Best Books availale in Market for Java Developers. I have been waiting to read a Book which covers all the latest XML API and how use them using latest Java Tools. Thanks to Wrox Publications for bringing this book to us. It covers how to do XML programming using all the latest Java API line I/O Sockets, Developing Presentation Logic, Developing Configuration and Deployment logic, Using XML in B2B applications. In short no other book in Market provides such a clear understanding of how to develop Java Based XML Applications.

Also it clearly explains how to use the latest Java Based XML Parsers like Xerces, Xalan and more. Friends if you need to get upto date with all the latest Java Based Parsers and different XML API, then this Book is really the Best one.

Baldwin's aim in writing this book was to provide younger (pre-college) readers with a biography of James D Watson. Watson, together with FHC Crick described a model structure for DNA in 1953. In 1962 Watson, Crick, and Maurice Wilkins were awarded the Nobel Prize for describing the structure of DNA. Baldwin's writing style is simple and easily readable which should suit its target audience. The book covers much of Watson's life from childhood to his Directorship of Cold Spring Harbor Labs. It is unfortunate that this is the only book that contains Watson's life story as Baldwin style does not enthuse the reader with appreciation for a scientist of tremendous historical importance.

If older readers want to cover the same ground they will have to read Watson's two autobiographical books. The first of these (The Double Helix) is a very personal account of his view of events leading to the description of the structure of DNA. The second book (Genes, Girls, and Gamow) takes up Watson's life after 1953 and is again a very personal account. Both books leave the reader with a satisfying appreciation that scientists, even one of the most successful, are human; painfully human in Genes, Girls, and Gamow.

Name:James Dewey Watson
Born:April 6,1928
Parents: James Dewey & Margaret Jean Watson
Sister: Elizabeth (2 years younger) Watson
Childhood: Chicago
Enjoyed: Piano, Theatre, Birding, and Reading

James Watson was 15 years old when he entered University Of Chicago as a freshman in a program for Gifted Students. His high school teachers helped him gain a scholarship to University of Chicago and suggested skipping junior and senior years of high school. He got A's in Biology and Social Sciences, B in Math, and C in English. One day he pulled a book off the shelf that would have a lasting impression on his life. The book is called, What Is Life? The Physical Aspects Of The Living Cell, written by Erwin Schrodinger. Watson was fascinated by the idea of finding the secret of life. He thought, to unlock the secret of life would be the best accomplishment in life.

He got accepted to Indiana University to pursue his dream. He worked with Professor Luria to determine how X- rays affected the reproductive ability of bacteriophage. In the summer, the phage group met at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Long Island, New York. Then James moved to Europe to Cambridge University in England in order to further his work. It is there that he met Francis Crick. James Watson felt he was in a race to find the secret of life. The two scientists twisted and turned the double helix model that they built, trying to learn the structure that fit the data. Their discovery led to the fact that in order for the cells to copy themselves, chromosomes must replicate. Replication begins when the double helix unzips. The article announcing the discovery of DNA appeared in the April 25, 1953, issue of Nature, a British science journal. This discovery came when James celebrated his 25th birthday.

The discovery of the structure of DNA triggered a scientific revolution. It helped to create the science of molecular biology. The Watson-Crick double helix is probably the most famous of all molecular structures. What does one do for an encore after such a historic finding? James then went to work as a senior research fellow at the California Institute of Technology, returned to Cambridge University, and then joined Harvard University. It was when Watson was working at Harvard, on October 18, 1962, a reporter at a Swedish radio station called to announce that James had won a Nobel Prize. He shared the prize and $50,000 with Drs. Crick and Wilkins. James Watson decided to split his time at Harvard and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. His idiosyncrasies blocked him from gaining a top post at Harvard.

James married Elizabeth Lewis in 1968. She was a Radcliffe student. Their son, Rufus, was born in 1970 and Duncan was born in 1972. Through federal grants, private donations and an $8 million gift from the A&P grocery store chain, James said farewell to Harvard. He decided to dedicate himself to his favorite place, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

In January 1977, James received a call from the White House. He was awarded the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award by President Gerald Ford. In October 1988, James headed up the National Center for Human Genome Research, a $3 billion, 15-year effort. He resigns from that post April 1992 and returns to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

Today, he concentrates his energies on the laboratory he loves. Unlike most scientists who die before their work is recognized, James continues to participate in the scientific revolution that followed the landmark discovery of the DNA double helix.

Not to put the previous reviewer down, but which culture hasn't studied the constelations ("fixed stars") & plenets ("wandering stars") for centuries?

This is a great book. The wording is very practical and down to earth. The subject matter in most of these chapters is formidable (given the limited space), and allows dialog between the reader & writer. What I enjoyed the most was not the diversity that was braught to the book, but the depth of knowledge that was braught to it. The chapter written about Chinese "Five-Element" Astroloy was my favorite. For more info about "this stuff"; I recomend anything written by DEREK WALTERS.

Now if you'll me let complane (which is what most of the critiques on Amazon.com do), I'll share with you what I don't like about most practicing astrologers. Most people (including Fagan) try to dispute the validity of using one Zodiac over another (sidereal vs. tropical). But the fact is that some Zodiacs don't even use the ecliptic! Incuding Chinese astrology. Or the Nakshatras, which most western astrologers "throw in"! And this is my point, that these Zodiacs are a cration. Our creation! And that's what makes astrology valid! Remember Arroyo. Don't forget Arroyo. He said, "If astrology is in fact an emination of universal mind or 'Collective Unconscious' or anything like that, then instead of imposing foreign dogma on astrology, I would say, let us open our eyes to what astrology already is! Let's acknowledge its inherent, extremely sophisticated, psychological [soulful] dimentions. It's all there. It's a tremendous tool, a language of consciousness and inner experience... This is one reason why traditional astrology has become quite meaningless to many of us; the astrology has not for the most part evolved to keep pace with our growth [in] consciousness. And it's why every culture has it's own astrology-the consciousness of that culture determines what level of understanding they can have of astrology."

I really need to emphisise this feeling I have about these truths! It seems as though all we need to do is look up and astrology becomes valid, alive because we are!

For another "good read" try The Origin of The Zodiac by Rupert Gleadow.

This is a book about astrology from China, India and Tibet. I do not know of any other book in which there are so many different astrological techniques from the East. Everything is clearly explained. In this book, you will find the wisdom of the sages of the East who have spotted the stars and planets for centuries. Now you can learn about their insights.

100 Ways To Say I lOVE Mother is a heart warming collection of teachings, memories and experience written by James Watson about his mother. Straight from the heart, it is easy to read. Each page provides a profile of what a special woman the author's mother is. However, it is equally applicable to any mother who truly cares about her children.

Mr. Watson metaphorically presents a rose to his mother with each page expressing his gratitude and love for her. Indeed, the bouquet of one hundred roses reflected in 100 Ways To Say I Love Mother is a beautiful presentation. For children of all ages, who may have difficulty expressing their feelings, Mr. Watson has provided a beautiful bouquet of words and emotions for Mom.

As we struggle to grow from childhood into individual adulthood, there is often confusion about " the good mother" and " the bad mother". In reality, mothers are human beings and individuals just like anyone else. As psychologist and a mother myself, I know the struggle to accept and be accepted as Mom from both sides of the fence. The bottom line is that as long as our mothers and those of us who become mothers are "good enough" to pass on core values and the meaning of life to our children, that is all we can ask of our Mothers or ourselves.

Reading Mr.Watson's book, it is clear his mother more than passed the test in raising a son, and man, who can so clearly convey his love and the values learned from her in childhood.

Kudos to you, Mr. Watson, for presenting this book not only to your mother, but to those who wish to be express the same things to their mothers. And a special bouquet to you, Mrs. Watson, for raising such a loving son, who respects not only his mother, but his wife, his daughter and women everywhere. A job well done! Obviously, this book is only one expression of how James lives the lessons you have taught him-and I cannot think of a better way for him to say, " I LOVE YOU MOTHER"

Reviewer: Marie A. DiCowden, Ph.D

The book was quite helpful to my study in calculus. It explains well on most of the basic concepts we as (students) need to understand in this course.

I won't waste time with this.....

See my review of his book "Point and Figure Charting: The Essential Application for Forecasting and Tracking Market Prices"

This is one of four books by Tommy and his team. Thay have a logical, organized method for investing that does indeed work.
The best money you can spend is to either learn this method yourself or find an investment consultant who uses this method.

Honestly, there are not too many books in the personal investing genre that we'd recommend for serious investment advice. But if you're a serious investor considering a venture into short-term trading (formerly known as day-trading), you'll benefit from the wisdom, mind-boggling detail and dizzying array of charts presented here. Tom Dorsey likens good investment advice to a sports playbook that a coach can follow through the twists and turns of the game. The plays and strategies that they outline will be valuable for novices, but we [...] figure that they will challenge trading veterans as well. You need to do some homework (like following the indices and making charts) to work with this book. Dorsey and crew urge you to learn stock-market basics, govern your emotions, understand the psychology that drives investors and avoid common mistakes, like investing based on trends and hot tips. And, don't mind their sports jargon; it's just a framework to make the uninitiated feel comfortable.

This paticular purchase is not a course, but merely 2 tapes. It is a continuation of a complete set (introductory, intermediate, advanced). So if you actually want a course, you need to buy the introductory and intermediate course (actually just a bunch of ... tapes).

I bought this book after hearing the praise about it; I sold it a few days later. Despite the title, this book isn't much of a course at all. Most of it is just straight Arabic text for you to read, with no translations, so you don't even know if you're reading correctly. The book does a better job of teaching you (if you know Arabic) about the Middle East than it does teaching Arabic.

Just to add to the other reviews, this textbook (which I used at 3rd year undergraduate level at Durham) is useful also to the solo student struggling to advance his or her Arabic. Buy the cassettes too, as they're an integral part of the course. I also recommend strongly that the private student buy the Teacher's Handbook too if he has no teacher as this contains - amongst other things - suggested translations and transcriptions of passages on the cassettes.

the authors are all around when they write this book. hard to understand explanations and few examples. i would recoment my professor another book but we started with this one. :(

This is a great textbook for undergraduate econometrics (some graduate students would also benefit from some chapters, like the one on Instrumental Variables, or Program Evaluation, or the chapters on Time Series & Forecasting). No wonder Mark Watson is one of the authors, since he is one of the best teachers I ever had. The book is clear, and it skips a lot of useless, obsolete stuff that most undergraduates have typically to go over just because everyone else has gone over it before. No time wasted with homoskedasticity, "fixed" regressors, Durbin-Watson. Everything is based on large-sample theory, the regressors are never assumed to be "nonstochastic", and homoskedasticity is treated as an exception (which is what happens in practice), not as a rule. There are nice, long empirical applications in each chapter, and some examples are dealt with in more chapters, so that you can see how new concepts are applied to the same problem, and how our understanding of the problem changes and improves with more refined tools. For more advanced students, mathematical appendixes (and a few chapters at the end) also provide reasonably accessible but relatively complex proofs. A great book.

It helped me as a lay person to get some insight into genetics and genetic technology. I knew nothing about it before that book and was quite surprised how far they already are. It shows genetic principles and many methods to operate on genes to learn more or to make them do what we want. But remember: It's totally outdated. Missing are a presentation how far genetic engeneering did already change the world. It's not just a few plants in a test lab, but tens of thousands of changed plants and microbes. DNA research is no more isolated from it's application. Whatever they discover is soon built into nature.

This little book is a decent review of techniques currently in use. It is a little simplistic at times, and gives few details, but for an undergraduate or the lay reader, this is an excellent book. Good, descriptive figures.

This book is actually a readable text explaining many of the pioneering methods of molecular biology. It does get quite technical, but it does a fairly good job explaining difficult concepts with the help of illustrations. I originally used this book as a text, and keep it now as a reference when I need to recall details about a technique. For those without any science background, it may be a challenge, but if you have the interest, it would be a lot of fun. The only bad thing about the book is that it really needs to be updated, although I should note that most of the techniques described are in current use with only slight modifications.