This has been a boon and an eye-opener. The text and the CD have shown me several programmes which I now use - PGP, TSS, Win-Secure-it. I urge all readers to carefully consider the privacy implications of using the web and email. This is an important resource book

Dodson and Nolan provide a sound reliability engineering survey. It may aslo be a helpful supplament for Six-Sigma folks. The volume also serves competently as a handbook and reference. Importantly, it includes an adequate bibilography so that the reader can easily pursue more specialized or more fundamental sources.

But ...

Neither the material nor the presentation distinguishes this book from its many competitors.

Too often the index enties have incorrect page numbers. In an age of computer automated indexing, mistakes of this kind really grate on a reader who expects more.

"School Violence" turned out to be a pleasant surprise in that it avoids the usual "quick-fix" proposition: waging total war on commercial entertainment. Instead it takes a more personal and immediate approach, focussing on the actual conditions at the schools, interviewing the survivors, examining the shooters as individuals, and proposing direct measures to curb the violent behaviors. In doing so, the articles also paint an amazingly dark picture of the American schools: violent, rotten places where the kids are poorly supervised, where the teachers are indolent and vengeful, and where no one does anything to stop even the mot injurious forms of bullying. Some of thes first-hand accounts are so grim as to be unbelievable (Dixon, "Six Years of Horror"). On the other hand, the book sometimes edges into saccharine melodrama familiar from syndicated TV hungry for happy endings: "We are Columbine" - "We will always be Columbine!" - "Columbine forever."

The organization is strong and intuitive. The book is subdivided into four sections: trends and tendencies, causes, first-hand accounts, and possible solutions. The first section isn't particularly informative, failing to draw any but the vaguest of answers, failing to portray the scope of the problem in any meaningful way, or just tossing around some tired accusations (the ubiqitous Mr. Males sneaked into this volume as well, and his arguments are particularly caustic). "Causes", the second section, is where I expected the book to fall on its face. Fortunately, "School Violence" unites all sermons on the evils of pop culture into a single unconvincing harangue ("For most kids, however, the popular culture is acting as a coarsener, a desensitizer, and a dehumanizer... (60)"). The remainder of the arguments include some that are not often heard, such as the possible link between psychiatric drugs and school violence and the loopholes in the individuals-with-disabilities laws. Best of all, the book does not treat the perpetrator of violent acts as degranged monsters - fittingly, "School Violence" addresses all forms of school violence, treating them as the culmination of the abusive social climate at schools.

The third section came as a surprise: these first-hand accounts are hard to find. The ones in this book are particularly revealing, debunking the majority of media myths about Harris and Klebold (the Columbine shooters).

However, the measures proposed in the fourth section seem drastic and counterproductive in comparison to the ealier arguments: increased penalties and involving the criminal justice system at schools (to get troubled students out of the system ASAP), increased monitoring, screening, and pat-searching, even arming the teachers(!?). There are a few "nice" articles, but they get lost.

Of course, the book isn't without flaws. I suspect it of playing on my interests and preconceptions more than once. Frequently I cringed at toxic logic along the lines of "there are so few boundaries for kids these days, with the drug use and violence, so if we give them some limits, that's good (126)". To quote another rotten apple: "We thought about letting our child make this decision, but decided it was unfair to turn the problem over to him (108)." Here's particular passage the made my blood rush to my face:

"If it's the assassination of a president, the bombing of a federal building, or the mass murder of high-school students by wigged-out teenagers full of pubescent resentment, plugged-up hormones, and the mental and moral garbage regularly served them by their schools, their televisions, their movies, their music, their books, their government and their newspapers, then it has to be because "the right" is on the move... these young men [Harris and Klebold] grew up in the make-believe world concocted by liberalism, a fantastic place where race and sex mean nothing; where violence and crime don't exist and guns have no function and no meaning, even as toys;... where people who adhere to "RACISM!" deserve to have their arms torn off and be burned, and... healthy young men whose genes and glands and brains drive them to aggression, are simply blank slated to be shaped, twisted, and scribbled over by "anger management" programs...(82-84)"

I'm still at a loss to deduce what that contributor's agrument actually is. Fortunately, the useful portions far outnumber such garbage.

I found it readable and useful

The poetry of the story is well written. The author does a great job with telling a complete tale in a short poem.

The meter is excellent and the rhyme scheme is well thought out.

A good workhorse of a book which takes you through the steps of creating a strategic plan for your organization. A little sketchy in some areas but does provide great worksheets to action all the stages. I particularly liked the emphasis on trying to be realistic in your approach and in the resources needed.

Es muy agradable poder contar con un texto que contenga una descripción completa de la mayoría de las tipologías y sistemas estructurales disponibles en el abanico del diseñador. Es una herramienta fundamental para orientar al estudiante contribuyendo a la formación de un "criterio" profesional de selección. Para el profesional es un manual de consulta permanente. Para el profesor un auxiliar muy valioso para la enseñanza-aprendizaje del comportamiento estructural. Como docente de facultad de arquitectura y profesional del diseño estructural considero que es un texto para tener muy a mano tanto en la bilbioteca personal como en la de las Universidades.

Ing. Daniel Quiroga Mendoza Argentina

If any theatre needed the legendary winged tanks, this was the one. If one looks at the map of Burma, the mountain ranges all run north and south and the steep slopes and jungly river bottoms all run cross wise to the main line of advance from India. Dividing Burma from India is the Arakan rgeion, with a mountainous ridge running out into the ocean forming a peninsula. The Japanese and the British 14th Army contested this area for 3 years before the British finally broke through in 1945.
If anyone could think up a set of topographic conditions worse for armored forces than the route from the Arakan to Rangoon they would have a large task. The British also invaded further north along the route of the Burma Road and dropped airborne as well but the main thrust had to come from the south because the northern infrastructure was at capacity, sending supplies to China, and could not support the main effort while in the south one flank was on the sea and supposedly could be reinforced that way.
This book covers the advance into Burma and the crossing of innumerable streams, bogs, ridges, and major rivers. Once out into the lowland plains the pursuit could be eased somewhat but necessity to keep supplies up often slowed the advance.
Good narrative history.

I found this book to be very enjoyable. It was very well written and the author was very descriptive in describing how things were during her life, and how they changed. I found it very interesting to see how much race relations have changed since the time the author was a girl.

Bryan Spinks offers a well thought collection of essays about two new liturgies. The essays themselves are as carefully crafted as the liturgies they review and include significant thoughts about the art of worship. Alas, while the Episcopal Church of Scotland once generated the liturgy that became the American Prayer Book, it is doubtful that such lightning will strike twice. The liturgical study in this book is significant. These Scottish liturgies no longer are.