Reviews Written By: A1845IJB63D5H7provided by Amazon.com |
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 | Lippincott's Illustrated Reviews: Biochemistry (Lippincott's Illustrated Reviews) | |
 | "The vividly illustrated biochemical processes relieve chemistry from its austere aura" | 2009-09-02 |
| After purchasing the biochemistry edition of Lippincott's series, I could not resist ordering the other two books, Pharmacology and Microbiology. The authors seem to get ahead of the game, by offering timely explanation when terminology gets obscure. For example, instead of footnoting the pages, notes are introduced within the paragraphs to complement the flow of thoughts.
The most impressive aspect of the book is the colorful illustrations that show the location of the various pathway reactions and involved reactants. The introduction of colorful graphics, bold font, and frequent notes did away with the austere feature of old teaching of biochemistry. Great credit goes for the chapter summaries that were done in neat and outstanding design to aid the reader in grasping the main principals of each chapter. Except of few typographic errors, the major draw back of the book is meager coloring of the atomic changing of molecules after reaction. In many instances, the reader is left to count and trace the new atoms that were added or removed from a molecule that made it different. In addition, the book reliance on reactants' names, and not chemical formulas, in many spots of the book, challenges the reader's memory in figuring out what had taken place. Even though most of the named chemical reactants have their formulas in nearby pages, the dismissal of the chemical formulas of reactants in many pages, undermine the memorization process. Do not count on finding extensive references or historical perspectives on how scientific discoveries led to such state of art of modern biochemistry. The authors merely portray an illustrated version of biochemistry for students, not researchers. | ||
 | Lippincott's Illustrated Reviews: Biochemistry | |
| "The vividly illustrated biochemical processes relieve chemistry from its austere aura" | 2009-09-02 |
| After purchasing the biochemistry edition of Lippincott's series, I could not resist ordering the other two books, Pharmacology and Microbiology. The authors seem to get ahead of the game, by offering timely explanation when terminology gets obscure. For example, instead of footnoting the pages, notes are introduced within the paragraphs to complement the flow of thoughts.
The most impressive aspect of the book is the colorful illustrations that show the location of the various pathway reactions and involved reactants. The introduction of colorful graphics, bold font, and frequent notes did away with the austere feature of old teaching of biochemistry. Great credit goes for the chapter summaries that were done in neat and outstanding design to aid the reader in grasping the main principals of each chapter. Except of few typographic errors, the major draw back of the book is meager coloring of the atomic changing of molecules after reaction. In many instances, the reader is left to count and trace the new atoms that were added or removed from a molecule that made it different. In addition, the book reliance on reactants' names, and not chemical formulas, in many spots of the book, challenges the reader's memory in figuring out what had taken place. Even though most of the named chemical reactants have their formulas in nearby pages, the dismissal of the chemical formulas of reactants in many pages, undermine the memorization process. Do not count on finding extensive references or historical perspectives on how scientific discoveries led to such state of art of modern biochemistry. The authors merely portray an illustrated version of biochemistry for students, not researchers. | ||
 | Lippincott's Illustrated Reviews: Microbiology | |
| "Skimpy on highlighting essential topics. Generous on graphic illustration" | 2009-09-02 |
| After progressing in reading, the reader will get used to the generosity of the authors in their constant, yet might be odd, attempts to illustrate the subject matter, specially, the extended review summaries at the end of the book. The book strength lies in standardizing the review methods of classification of microorganism, of drug stacks used in treatment, and of microscopic and culture morphology.
Despite the reasonable flow of thoughts in the paragraphs of each subject, the book lacks highlighting of names of diseases, organisms, and methods that are left hidden in the maze of words. Thus, the student reader has to struggle with underlining and highlighting the dense text. For example, a long paragraph on selective, bacterial culture media contains five media names typed as plain text. That would require thorough re-reading, while reviewing, in order to memorize the five media. Thus, the authors abandoned the very premise of the book, which is "to review", and left the reader with the burden of searching while reviewing. The book lacks of adequate footnotes or paragraph notes in visible locations. As such, the book paragraphs are plain, dense, and burdensome. Though there are plenty of boxed highlighted concepts, and even funny cartoons, it appears that the authors dismissed the busy and somber mood of busy lifestyle of students and rather tended to the relaxed style of casual readers. Although most of the graphic illustrations are useful and neat, there is a sense of naivety in making trivial illustrations that serve no higher cause than the obvious. For example, on modes of virus transmission, a figure shows placental, birth canal, and postpartum images of contact between the agent and fetus/baby. Nothing is gained from such simplistic graphing of the plain and obvious course of action. In displaying the microscopic slides and culture photos, the book wasted more space on the entitling of the medical illustrations than on making the slides and cultures large enough to be legible. The book ventures into an odd and redundant way of describing bacterial classification using colored pie chart. The frequently repeated colored pie serves very little purpose compared to the space it occupied. Neither the portions of the pie correspond to any numeric value of the bacterial classes they represent, nor do the colors of the pie wedges serve any purpose other than decorating the book page. The same odd style of representation applies to the use of one-column tables that use multiple rows to compare two different types of organisms. | ||
 | Cook Yourself Thin: Skinny Meals You Can Make in Minutes (Voice) (1st Edition) | |
 | "The fat, salt, and carb are excessive. No scientific basis." | 2009-05-24 |
| What if women get skinny, yet not healthy? Apparently, the book targets the women population as judged by its cover. Skimming through the table of contents, the book has every western meal under the sun, with no restriction on the major culprits. Thus, the book plays with the math of calories to control bodyweight. Such approach overlooks the quality of life when salt, high cholesterol and high-saturated fatty acids were left unchecked. The book also assumes that people fall into limited type of behavior as far as food selection goes. Definitely, the authors of this book are not the smartest food selectors. Neither the authors took into consideration the need for simple and available food ingredients, nor did they justify when or why their food choices would be beneficial. The book entirely omitted the need for low salting of food, avoiding food with high glycemic index, watching cholesterol and saturated fat intake, and the need for high fiber contents in daily meals. Furthermore, the book limited its scope on getting the reader to cook and consume without clear principle other than mixing, making, and devouring their recipes. The major drawback of the book is advancing the concept that being skinny was the ultimate goal of healthy eating. It missed the many aspects of healthy eating such that consuming food items that preserve dental health, intestinal harmony, adequate immune system, or cardiovascular well-being, let alone the economic benefit of consuming simple food items. | ||
 | The New Solar System | |
| "Joyful companion on diverse disciplines of knowledge." | 2007-12-24 |
| When other books fail to get me to sit down and read, this book has always been a true joy. The authors implemented the beauty of art and photography with the quest for the remote unknowns that allow the reader's imagination to grow freely. The contrast between the dark and immense space and colorful and selective graphs grasps the reader's curiosity for search for clues on the ultimate purpose of the universe.
During cold and long nights, that book brings the pleasure of rejoicing the triumph of our human race over myth and trivial conflicts that plagued our long history. The authors demonstrate the immense potential of science and international cooperation in space discovery. It also addresses fundamental issues such as the origin of both biological life as well as stellar and planetary life. Of course, the book did not attempt to explain why some elements were more abundant in the solar system than others, or whether there was an ultimate secret in the large space universe versus the immensely small nuclear core of atoms, or why atoms behaved in such manner that created life and organic matter. The book however laid out the authors' current knowledge about the solar system. Compared to the construction of the Great Pyramids of Egypt, the space program has comparably gigantic antennas of 70 meters diameter, similarly gigantic rocket launching structures, oddly designed neutrino detectors of 40 meter by 40 meters and over a thousand of photo-detectors. The book displays such human yearning for the history-long quest for knowledge of the greater world, with comparable passion for integrating many fields of knowledge. The sad fact about the science of astronomy is the minute number of scientists of merely 1500 worldwide. While the Pyramids were built thousands years ago with resourceful and generous commitment by the weak state, modern astronomers are confronted with indifferent statesmen and the public that is more interested in feeding, educating, and caring for its own exploding population growth. As the authors stated in the book introduction, that book neither is a textbook or a coffee table book, but rather in between. The book includes plenty of tables, graphs, and photos without delving into the hard science of space physics. The book reads like an illustrated story telling about the events in the solar system. It thus provides the reader with plenty of food for thought. The main drawback in the book is the variation of writing styles from one chapter to another since each chapter is written by a different coauthor. Such lack of systematic approach to each topic in the book leaves the reader with the extra task of sorting out its unexpected flow of thoughts. I would rather prefer the unified template of thought flow along all the chapters in order to facilitate the comparison between the different members of the solar system. Essentials of Weightlifting and Strength Training Essentials of Weightlifting and Strength Training (Paperback) | ||
 | The Naked Warrior | |
 | "Bodyweight tension for limbs. None for the spine." | 2007-05-27 |
| I review Pavel's book with my irresistible personal prejudice that stems from resenting unreal mentoring. Yet, Pavel proved himself by appealing to a majority of people who have been left out of the athletic world by virtue of the commercially motivated health clubs. Pavel benefits from the great opportunity of having a vast majority of customers hungry for motivation and challenge. Many people have found a niche in Pavel's Kettlebell contests and exercises that enhance the upper body. It would be unfair to deny him such contribution to the field of folklore fitness. If left to my own device, I would give the book one star for poor planning and exposing readers to injurious activity. I opted for the four stars in crediting the highly motivated and innovative work of the author. This book, published in 2003, shares the other criticized features of Pavel's books such as poor referencing, unscientific and unproven advices, commercially driven motives, and high risk and injury prone routines. The new features particular to this book that deserve criticism follow. The book plunges into high-yield and high-risk bodyweight tensioning exercises from the get go. Push up, one leg squat, and pull ups assortments are principal routines described in the book. No single exercise will address the spinal erectors nor does any exercise address the spinal posture during squatting in particular. The three exercises could cause life-long injury to the rotator cuffs, knees, and spines since the author admittedly states that "no routine is required". With no routine, the reader is left to believe in inconsistent training and quick short cut. The author erroneously claims that "the harder you contract your muscles, the stronger they get". That defies the basic principle of physiology that muscles require external resistance in order to develop strength. Strength, the author claims, is a skill. The author further claims that only "tension" advances strength and bouncing and momentum motions is a form of cheating. First, you could not get stronger by mere contracting your own muscles; otherwise the astronauts would have done that without resistance machines. Second, bouncing and momentum are essential in creating virtual forces that exceed static forces. All natural movements such as walking, running, and jumping require bouncing, impact, and inertia utilization. Without jerking motions, the fast muscle fibers would not develop strength, the tendons and ligaments would not toughen up, and the neural responses would not adapt to fast reaction. An classic example of bouncing strength exercise is hand-hopping on horizontal parallel bars or the sides of a horizontally suspended ladder. That is an exercise which many top lifters have learned would strengthen the arms and upper body beyond any known weight training. It simply mimics what chimpanzees do on trees. Pavel's light bodyweight enables him to do the one-leg squat, one arm push ups, and chin-ups far beyond the majority of the chubby and fluid-loaded American population. The limbs of the vast American population could easily buckle and incur permanent injuries with Pavel's macho routine of unsystematic and unorganized training. Of course, there is no one-hand pull-up in this book since that requires extreme power beyond what bodyweight training could offer. The author's reliance on testimonial approval from participants of his web site does not lend credence to their objectivity or lack of conflict of interest. | ||
 | Diplomacy | |
| "Absorbing account on the art of dealing and warring among nations" | 2007-01-17 |
| In Diplomacy, Henry Kissinger presents his masterpiece analysis of the evolution of the art of diplomacy. As a top diplomat, the author leaves out details of historic events that are circumstantial to his theme. That is the understanding of how national diplomacy has grown up in the last four centuries. Diplomacy starts with the seventeenth century dominance of Holy Empire where the Emperor drove his absolute authority direct from God. In such imperial design, the populace is the servant of the Emperor who represents God on Earth. Democracy is a sin since it questions God's will. Modern science was newborn and untested. The emergence of reformation presented challenge to the Holy Empire. That gave rise to new diplomacy. France improvised the tactic of "nation-state" as a savior of its populace from the estranged Empire. Astute leaders would have to adapt the biblical doctrine to deal with the new trend of questioning the divine authority of the Emperor. The rise of "nation-state" started the "immoral" struggle for national interests and securities, in place of God's work. The national struggles that replaced the Holy Empire collided over land grabs, borders, and national interests. Bismarck advanced that evolution farther into "Realpolitik" with cold and calculating national dealing that is devoid of personal affection. The result was the unification of Germany. The major landmarks in the evolution of diplomacy are closely attributed to individual statesmen with secure and long careers on the national theatre. After Bismarck's removal, the reckless "Worldpolitik" led to expansionism and two world wars. The aggravating factor was the emergence of new military technology that complicated the coordination of diplomatic planning and military strategy. As modern science grew confident and Deity grew challenged, the military industry outpaced diplomacy in securing national interests. WWI engulfed Europe as a result of the failure of diplomacy to catch up with military mobilization. As science grew older and military force became lethal, WWII erupted out of exercising excessive diplomacy, with little military strategy on the allied side. The author delves into the psychology of nations and leaders in a brilliant analysis of its impact on historic development. For three centuries, the cold and calculating Great Britain dominated the seas and retained its imperial kingdom and democratic government in determined trend of "splendid isolation". Great Britain kept the balance of the European forces till its fateful end in the marsh of German and Russian dictatorships. Modern technology then eliminated the oceanic barriers between America and the old world. Great Britain is then replaced by USA, with only one difference: rejection to colonialism. The psychological analysis of the behavior of the statesmen in time of peace and war offers deep understanding of how our present day policy has evolved. As recent as the year 1914, WWI started because the European emperors refused to attend the funeral of the assassinated Austrian emperor because his dead wife was not from noble blood. In 1960, Henry Kissinger was freely and humbly walking Kansas City's streets with Henry Truman. Neither of the two was from noble blood, yet each of them was the top policy maker in the human history. Diplomacy has grown and matured as our struggle with faith, race, and science continues. Mohamed F. El-Hewie Author of Essentials of Weightlifting and Strength Training | ||
 | Getting Stronger: Weight Training for Men and Women (Revised Edition) | |
| "18th century's approach to strengthening: bulking and artistic illustration, with minimal fitness." | 2006-12-12 |
| In my earlier review of "Weight Training for Men and Women" by the same author, I had addressed the same issues which appear in the current book, which is nothing more than reproducing the previous book under a different title. The reason for my second review is to attempt to answer my own concerning questions. Those are:
1- What are the simplest and basic exercises needed for staying fit versus achieving tip-top athleticism? 2- What are the basic nutritional needs for staying healthy at affordable cost? 3- What are the minimum guidelines for telling the difference between good fitness virtues versus bad ones? I believe that Bill Pearl has taken the bodybuilding approach for granted as the best way to building strength. There must be a simpler answer to reduce the number of exercises to as low as 3 of 4, and the nutritional needs to basic grocery food stuff. The complicated needs for bodybuilding stand in the way of producing an educated generation of fit citizens. From what you read in this book, the current approach to weight training is more retarded than the 18th century's approach: complex needs for formidable objectives. This approach alienates the majority of people who are looking for affordable, rational, and practical life style of staying fit and strong. A summary for the book contents follows with reviewer's comments. - General conditioning: it prepares beginners to joining the world of adult training for the sake of becoming bodybuilders. - Bodybuilding: a summary of training programs for beginners, intermediate, and advanced trainees with helpful tables of sketches of exercises. - Strength Training for Sports: an essential discussion on periodization, exercise physiology, and training habits. - Stretches from Weight Training: a brief and appropriate list of stretching exercises. - Sports Training Programs: full 100 pages of non-sensual and redundant programs for people who never seek help from a bodybuilding expert. The section on Powerlifting propagates the myth of isolated regional training. Thus the legs are hit hard on one day, the shoulders on another day, and the back on a different day. That is a backward approach to training that even the 18th century athletes would have never contemplated. - Exercises for Free Weights: This is the thickest chapter in the book. It deals with exercises for isolated body parts. It starts with two anatomical charts that are made in haste. The chart of the front, misplaces the gluteus minimus and that of the back misplaces the two rhomboideus muscles. Neither chart locates the serratus anterior, levator scapulae, abdominis transversus, or the most important muscles: the spinal erectors or quadratus lumborum. Let alone the soleus and vastus intermedius. Its major pitfalls are: the bent-to-opposite foot (page 192), wide-gripped back squat (page 284), and cross-arm front squat (page 285-7). The first exercise traumatizes the vertebral ligaments, the latter two overlook shoulder flexibility. - Hardware: is the right place to fill 20 pages with non sense information. - Fit for Life: deals with low back issues and children's training. Its pitfall lies in designating specific training programs for blue-collar workers and white-collar workers, as if the author could draw the specific health criteria from socioeconomic status. -Getting Older: is a motivational chapter on training in old age. It is based on personal concern of the author. The over 50's program is merely a personal choice than a reliable recommendation. -Muscles: is a snap shot on muscle anatomy and function with an attempt to explain the effect of exercise of muscular adaptation. - Injuries: is a brief outline of sports injuries and the "RICE" first aid. - Injury Rehabilitation Program: is a useless chapter that lists exercises of back, knee, and shoulders without further details on how to structure any rehab. - Nutrition: deals with macronutrients, supplements, natural food, and vegetarian eating. It presents both the author's own experience in addition to current knowledge among bodybuilders. - Drugs: deals with the reason for their use, its statistics, and types: steroids, growth hormone, and stimulants. It discusses two perplexing uses of human chorionic gonadotropin and tamoxifen by bodybuilders for blocking the effect of steroid on breast and testicles. [It might be more shocking to most readers to realize that nutritional health food stores in America sell on-the-self packages that contain steroids. Those cause breast swelling in male bodybuilders with inconvenient knobbing and hardening of the breast tissue. (Ref.: personal encounter is a local gym)]. - Brief History of Resistance Exercise: is the best chapter in the book. It contains rare photos and stories from the 18th century and attempts to document the history of lifting. Its best photo belongs to Arthur Saxon's one-hand press of his two brothers loaded on a bar. The hitch, in that photo, is that the loaded bar does not show a yielding curve, which raises doubt about the authenticity of the photograph. Mohamed F. El-Hewie Author of Essentials of Weightlifting and Strength Training | ||
 | Bodybuilding 101 : Everything You Need to Know to Get the Body You Want | |
| "Would have earned five stars with some change in attitude." | 2006-10-23 |
| The author has compromised his hard work and insightful views by relishing his machismo. It portrays Bodybuilding as a mindless activity obsessed with sex, muscle mass, and physical appearance at the expense of graceful fitness, as follows. 1-The book cover is repulsive to a great segment of readers (in my opinion). It further conveys a sense of physical emptiness. That obsession of showing sexually attractive, yet mentally shallow, is prevalent in the book photos. 2- The first page of the book shows a person laying his shoe on the barbell. That is both demeaning to the sport and unhygienic. The part of the barbell that touches the lifter skin should not come in contact with the sole of the shoes. 3- The very second page shows a hunk squatting in 135 lb barbell and wearing a belt. Waist belts are the worst advertisement for bodybuilding. The rest of the book will amplify thas philosophy of stiff and inflexible lifters. 4- The most annoying part of the book is the photos of young people drinking, eating, laying on grass, and thinking. I am not kidding! That made me resists spending the $17.95, though I liked many things about the book. I might change my mind though and give it a ride home. The book does have many good ideas. 5- Many photographed people in the book look weird, either drugged or otherwise. Many faces look pathetic, not because of lack of physical attraction but rather of angry facial expressions. It conveys a sense of an endemic psychological disturbance among bodybuilders. 6- The unfortunate trend in the book is the total lack of stretching, flexibility, or sound skeletal fitness. The whole book is about getting big, strong, and cut. Many bodybuilders achieved those goals yet subjected themselves to spinal injuries, life-long joint disease, and unhealthy overweight. There is no single lift in the book that started from the floor and made full travel overhead, which is ironic, unscientific, and unfortunate. The positive contribution in the book is plenty as well. 1- The author is clearly well organized with high abstract skills. His chapters are beautifully written, concise, rational, and focused. The author is genuine and knowledgeable. He does not sell the moon or the stars, but rather conveys what he has learned and what worked for him. That is where the worth of author's experience counts. I suspect that the author bought into someone's ill advice for the design of his book cover for commercial purpose. 2- The book offers very effective methods of excelling in bodybuilding by its emphasis on intensity. It is realistic in stressing that 90 days would not do the magic that others claim. It is realistic on exercise planning, except its obsession with peripheral muscles. I wish the author revisits Newton's laws of mechanics in order to figure out why huge arms and shoulders, with insecure low back, is not the best way to educate people about building muscles. 3- The invaluable wealth in the book is its emphasis on constant changing of routine, plenty of sleep and rest (that is the best approach), and its simple and clear understanding of the fundamental exercises such Squat and Deadlift. I dreaded the front squat with crossed arms. It is not right to wait until you lose shoulder flexibility and become unable to flex your elbows and shoulders in such improper front squat. 4- Many exercise photos in the book are inspiring to beginners. It demonstrates that physical improvement is feasible with behavior modification. 5- The peak triumph in the book is the discussion of exercising all body parts with different exercises of different ratios of sets and repetitions. Here, where you learn some lasting knowledge from an experienced author. One might argue that engaging in bodybuilding is more productive than succumbing to sedentary living, drugs, smoking, or alcohol. Yet, the many years bodybuilders devote bulking up should not be wasted in compromising future health with inflexible joints, damaged internal organs, and irreversible side effects of overweight. High mobility and full range of motion of joints should improve the quality of life of bodybuilders. The top bodybuilders I followed in my over 40 years of training either struggled with kidney problems, lower back and knee problems, high blood pressure, or loss of great opportunities of professional and educational gain because of the extreme indulgence of building massive muscles that are hard to keep atop. The sadistic drive for big and strong should be substituted by graceful and strong. And habitual smiling comforts the soul as well. Mohamed F. El-Hewie Author of Essentials of Weightlifting and Strength Training | ||
 | The Bubble of American Supremacy: Correcting the Misuse of American Power | |
| "A critique on government's fundamentalism" | 2006-09-16 |
| In his last effort to dump George Bush, Soros resorts to his stern objectivity and economic savvy to expose the disastrous consequences of keeping a drug-rehabilitated and born-again Christian in the driver's seat of a superpower. Soros attributes to the latter traits, Bush's experience with the devil. Bush found his mission in 9/11 and the neocons found their man in Bush. That was crude social Darwinism achieved by military supremacy to ensure national survival and subjugate the rest of the world. The nation that is fittest militarily survives, others perish.
Hoping that Bush would lose the 2004 election, Soros described the Bush's doctrine as a bubble of supremacy that would soon burst. He likens military fundamentalism by market fundamentalism. Both tend to favor the interest of individual nations and disregard the collective welfare of whole body of nations. Thus, as the sole superpower, America is wasting its treasures and making its mistakes that caused far-from equilibrium world peace. Since there is no other nation stronger than America, America would only decline by virtue of its own mistakes. Those are plenty, thanks to Bush's doctrine. Soros takes on Bush's proclamation to rally the world for the American cause and to take the war to the enemy. In an open society, people choose for themselves and do not need others to rally them. Thus, Bush's views of subjugating the world to his American causes are fundamentalist, not only militarily and economically, but also religiously. Secondly, the enemy has no address to wage war at. Soros brilliantly relies on the dictum of victim-perpetrator analogy to analyze many examples of international terrors. He concludes that America should have never overreacted to 9/11 in such manner that squandered opportunities for world peace. Terror was around since the beginning of history and would not disappear soon. It is even worse when nations turn terrorists and not realize it. He exemplifies that with our count of our deaths in Iraq while forgetting about the Iraqi deaths. One of the craziest ideas, Soros discusses, is the MAD; mutual assured destruction, which calls for wide spread of nuclear weapons such that nations would be deterred by fear from mutual destruction. Similarly is the debate over the war on drug; whether to deal with addicts as sick or criminals? Whether illicit drugs made legal? Soros outlines three scenarios for getting into the Iraq quagmire: Oil, Israel, and Imperial supremacy. Those are concealed under the façade of spreading democracy and ridding of weapons of mass destruction. He overlooks the personal influence of the rich Kuwaitis and Saudis dreaded Saddam's adventures. To Soros' dismay, reason does not prevail in politics or in economics. His theory on reflexivity in economics, has a role in politics as well. Electorate has emotions that determine future leaders. Leaders have emotions that shape their decisions. Thus, world peace is as unpredictable as world market. The bust and boom, in economics, works well in politics. Yet, with all the criticism to Bush's policy in Iraq, history might credit Bush for his daring and charismatic risk in altering the course of a totalitarian regime. Getting Saddam into a prison cell would not be forgotten for generations and might even be correlated with biblical justice in the eyes of many Muslims. Major historical landmarks were made by radical leaders. Mohamed F. El-Hewie Author of Essentials of Weightlifting and Strength Training | ||
 | Costs of Bush's War in Iraq: Correcting the Misuse of American Power | |
| "A critique on government's fundamentalism " | 2006-09-16 |
| In his last effort to dump George Bush, Soros resorts to his stern objectivity and economic savvy to expose the disastrous consequences of keeping a drug-rehabilitated and born-again Christian in the driver's seat of a superpower. Soros attributes to the latter traits, Bush's experience with the devil. Bush found his mission in 9/11 and the neocons found their man in Bush. That was crude social Darwinism achieved by military supremacy to ensure national survival and subjugate the rest of the world. The nation that is fittest militarily survives, others perish. Hoping that Bush would lose the 2004 election, Soros described the Bush's doctrine as a bubble of supremacy that would soon burst. He likens military fundamentalism by market fundamentalism. Both tend to favor the interest of individual nations and disregard the collective welfare of whole body of nations. Thus, as the sole superpower, America is wasting its treasures and making its mistakes that caused far-from equilibrium world peace. Since there is no other nation stronger than America, America would only decline by virtue of its own mistakes. Those are plenty, thanks to Bush's doctrine. Soros takes on Bush's proclamation to rally the world for the American cause and to take the war to the enemy. In an open society, people choose for themselves and do not need others to rally them. Thus, Bush's views of subjugating the world to his American causes are fundamentalist, not only militarily and economically, but also religiously. Secondly, the enemy has no address to wage war at. Soros brilliantly relies on the dictum of victim-perpetrator analogy to analyze many examples of international terrors. He concludes that America should have never overreacted to 9/11 in such manner that squandered opportunities for world peace. Terror was around since the beginning of history and would not disappear soon. It is even worse when nations turn terrorists and not realize it. He exemplifies that with our count of our deaths in Iraq while forgetting about the Iraqi deaths. One of the craziest ideas, Soros discusses, is the MAD; mutual assured destruction, which calls for wide spread of nuclear weapons such that nations would be deterred by fear from mutual destruction. Similarly is the debate over the war on drug; whether to deal with addicts as sick or criminals? Whether illicit drugs made legal? Soros outlines three scenarios for getting into the Iraq quagmire: Oil, Israel, and Imperial supremacy. Those are concealed under the façade of spreading democracy and ridding of weapons of mass destruction. He overlooks the personal influence of the rich Kuwaitis and Saudis dreaded Saddam's adventures. To Soros' dismay, reason does not prevail in politics or in economics. His theory on reflexivity in economics, has a role in politics as well. Electorate has emotions that determine future leaders. Leaders have emotions that shape their decisions. Thus, world peace is as unpredictable as world market. The bust and boom, in economics, works well in politics. Yet, with all the criticism to Bush's policy in Iraq, history might credit Bush for his daring and charismatic risk in altering the course of a totalitarian regime. Getting Saddam into a prison cell would not be forgotten for generations and might even be correlated with biblical justice in the eyes of many Muslims. Major historical landmarks were made by radical leaders. Mohamed F. El-Hewie Author of Essentials of Weightlifting and Strength Training | ||
 | Soros on Soros: Staying Ahead of the Curve | |
| "Truth and myth of a utopian Open Society." | 2006-09-03 |
| Edward Teller and George Soros shared few common traits; nationality, religion, and globalization. Both were Hungarian, Jewish, hard workers, and stubborn thinkers. Teller dreamed of the Hydrogen bomb and believed earlier that a nuclear explosion might detonate the earth's atmosphere and ends civilization. Even with the fission bomb out-of-reach, Teller was living in the dreamland of the nuclear fusion. Soros is less fortunate in reaching his utopian dream despite his billions. Sociology isn't physics. Soros' players have emotions and beliefs that impact their decisions. The Russian robbers had outsmarted him, as they did with Napoleon and Hitler. Yet, his driven obsession with open society made him repeat the same mistake in Macedonia and Ukraine. Teller also confronted opponents, yet with like scientific minds and confronting limited physical constraints. Knocking down Oppenheimer was Teller's big chance to keep his status, though never became billionaire. In Soros's realm, there is no known opponent to knock down in order to satisfy his utopian dream of open society. His sense that his efforts might lead to lasting changes on the long term, even in his absence, might well be true. Ideas outlive people, though Soros' generation is unique in many ways. Soros's basic concepts center on reflexivity, fallibility, far-from equilibrium economy, and open society. His basic tools are economic and mathematical analysis of supply and demand. The greatest challenge to his effort to utilize his tools in achieving open society is the lack of concrete principles for predicting human emotion. Not only the little players like Macedonia, Albania, Iran, and Israel are driven by emotions, but also the American Superpower shares the ailment. Noticeably however, financial investors possess detrimental emotion as well. They must win in the first round or get out before another loss. Soros' judgment on the imbalance of receivables and production in the new Russia is an example of an impatient, selfish, and zealous financier looking merely for his immediate gain. In his comparison to the sudden decay of the Soviet empire with the British Empire, Soros cannot conceal his wishful desire of a mechanical history. He bitterly blames the West for betraying Mikhail Gorbachev and accuses the latter of being naïve. Yet, he admits that the sick mother of communism could not carry her fetus to full term. His paternal views that eastern European and third world nations need be or anxious to be told what to do when given financial assistance, omit national emotions. Nations have pride as do individuals. Coercive politics might hinder the progress to open society. Past Germany, Venezuela, Iran, North Korea, Iraq, Syria, Cuba, and Yugoslavia are examples of how imposing politics perpetuated long conflicts. Where does his utopian dreaming lead to? The Internet, he claims, is opening society and might seal the death of fascism, communism, and the like. However, anything could happen in the future since our civilization is fueled by energy which is getting scarcer everyday. His assumption that a new scientific breakthrough, such as carbonless extraction of energy from coal, or other innovations that secure renewable energy, could safeguard human civilization from inevitable catastrophe. Soros' resort to philosophy is driven by his economic undertaking. In order to make financial profit, he has to tackle the emotional factors of key players. Against the common wisdom of history and science, emotional policy-makers are still blundering national treasures and human lives. Defeat or victory in war is still the controlling principal in curtailing stray emotion of nations. Mohamed F. El-Hewie Author of Essentials of Weightlifting and Strength Training | ||
 | Courting Justice: A Lawyer's Casebook, from the Yankees V. MLB to Gore V. Bush | |
| "One of the greatest legal minds of his time" | 2006-08-27 |
| In sorting out the various element that contributed to Boeis's distinguished career as a lawyer who gave pride and grace to his profession, I could come up with few, based on his narration of and his broadcasted trials: 1- As a middle class young student, growing up in a racist society in the 1960, he sensed the common suffering as a young parent of two kids, with little resources, with those that confront black Americans. Poverty knows no skin color. Yet, his white skin enabled him to secure modest residence in Chicago after verifying that his wife was also not of the colored race. "Does it matter?" he never got an answer to his question from the nosy residential agent who decided his fate, then. The mere instinct of asking such a question in 1959 when racism was the norm in the American society, shows how liberal young Boeis was for his generation. 2- His financial struggle to raise family and go to school had ruined his first marriage and left him a wounded man. The woman who helped him succeed left him with his two kids. That loss seemed to throw him into a forbidden love with the wife of his evidence professor, which ended by his transfer from Chicago to Yale. His second marriage led him to work in New York, after graduation from law school. Yet, for the same reason of occupational dedication, it ended and a third marriage emerged in Washington DC. It was clear that he learned by mixing with ordinary people and shared their suffering and struggle for survival. His personal struggle went along with his developing clarity, simplicity, and accuracy in his legal reasoning. 3- His adventurous ordeal with the Guatemalan millionaire's ransom sheds more light on his rigorous calculating mind. His two divorces, growing up poor, gambling interests, and mixing with rich and diverse cultures in major American cities and institutions, were all put in action in his playful and foxy litigation with dangerous, arrogant, and powerful opponent, in foreign and lawless country. Though Boeis admits his mistakes in indulging in a lawsuit that burdened his relationship with his family, his profession, and his employer, yet his mind was unsettled. Whether enough justice could be bought by everyone? Or standing to those who subvert justice at the expense of indigent citizens is worth fighting for? He opted to deliver justice and would repeat the same "mistake" in US v. Microsoft and Bush v. Gore. His recognition that lawyers to parties should not act as judges did not quench his zeal for out-of-reach justice. 4- Boies' Guatemalan adventure also demonstrates his stubborn steadfastness that accompanied him since youth and cost him two marriages, yet let to successful profession. His empathy with Mary and her two kids let him overlook the notorious deeds of her callous ex-husband. After trapping a criminal into a federal prison, Boeis ventured into freeing him despite his long and heinous mischiefs. Boies went on to praise the courage of the FBI, criticize few corrupt judges and lawyers, yet forgot his own indulgence in releasing a criminal to freedom for the sake of his millions. The son and daughter of Joey would have better life without his psychotic influence, Mr. Boies! 5- Almost every legal argument he confronted has been approached as a mathematical problem. Boies outlines all possible options to which his arguments could lead to, along with all feasible approaches to each option. That basic logical organization enables him to prepare for fights he never fought and win fights by virtue of his convincing reasoning. His unique and individual stand on principals distinguishes him over the majority of lawyers. Boies acts as an activist for reform and democracy when many lawyers aimed for secure financial winning. He confesses that had not he been a lawyer, he might have been a teacher of History. Making history was his drive to regulate software industry, health care cost, and democratic representation of powerless voters. 6- The simplicity of his reasoning could not be attributed to study alone. In many of his arguments, he adapts to unpredictable responses and arrives to his ultimate goal. In the asbestos case against Grace, he admits that both the court and his opponent failed to catch him leading during direct examination. He had unintentionally improvised his leading questioning to get his witness to open up against his reservation. In the US v. Microsoft, Boeis shows brilliant technical skills unexpected from a non-technical professional. While Gates accused him by being unable to pass high school physics, Boeis quashed the tricks of the top experts of Microsoft when they attempted to fool the court by claiming that Windows and IE are inseparable. The arrogance and shallow mindedness of the software gurus led them to underestimate the diverse interests and skills of an uncanny lawyer. 7- In addition to his growing up among common people and sharing their struggle for making ends meet, his gambling and travel hobbies have enriched his quick problem solving ability. Associating with people at the top of their professional careers, combined with his keen ability to listen and observe, has contributed to priming his deftness. He does not shy from describing himself as an "experienced examiner", which he is. 8- His ultimate secret may be his ability to clearly discern the basic logical blocs of an argument and tie them quickly and neatly within larger frameworks. Few times, he admits exhaustion after examining hard-to-admit witnesses. Yet, he realizes that those tough fighters always admit to more information after embarrassment than they set off to do. On the quality of justice and judges, Boies presents a realistic narration of corrupt as well as honest judges. Consistently, he claims that judges always attempt to be fair even when they sometimes act with exaggerated toughness. Mohamed F. El-Hewie Author of Essentials of Weightlifting and Strength Training | ||
 | Law 101: Everything You Need to Know About the American Legal System | |
| "Heavily academic in dry, concise, and reasonable format" | 2006-08-13 |
| For what it worth, the book is intended for classroom study. It is dry, dense, and concise with heavy emphasis on the history of law and its role in society. The author has relied on few anecdotes to demonstrate how the law is applicable to dispute resolution. Those linger along many chapters and require the reader to follow closely each anecdote in order to discern the applicability of the law. The book is of little help as an immediate reference in practical presentation in litigation since it targets students of law in their introduction to development of modern legal system. It is however a great read since it is devoid of distracting details, forms, legal procedures, or local court rules. Its emphasis on concepts of law renders it useful in probing the minds of the legal profession. Its simple table of contents and index also facilitate its utility. In addition to its dense paragraphs and meager white pacing, it has a unique feature of addressing each subchapter with an inquiry title. That feature overcomes the boredom of reading lengthy text by virtue of starting with inquiry and attempting to reveal its intrigue through a logical sequence of paragraphs. The author shows no disparate need to cram his book with unnecessary tables of irrelevant information or references and relied heavily on his shrewd understanding of the law and history to present the reader with a transparent synopsis on the study of law. Mohamed F. El-Hewie Author of Essentials of Weightlifting and Strength Training | ||
 | How and When to Be Your Own Lawyer | |
| "An ethical advocate for the service of Justice and search for truth" | 2006-07-30 |
| In comparison to Paul Bergman's legendry book "Represent Yourself In Court: How to Prepare & Try a Winning Case", this one is a legendary rival of a different flavor. The author entrusts his genuine instincts and writes as an advocate for the underdogs, needy, and less powerful in face of unfair, expensive, and complex system of justice. Unfairness stems from the persons in charge of delivering justice. The Author uses Judge Brian Duff as an example for personal effect on the service of justice. Despite the critiques on the poor organization and trivial inaccuracies in the book, it serves as an informal, casual, and benign display of information that is easy to read and assimilate while time sneaks by. (Bergman book's strict organization renders its reading laboriously time demanding). Once every few pages, the author interjects the highlighted concepts in full-page tables. The author convincingly achieves his goal that reason and logic could triumph if supported by simple know-how. In many of his anecdotes about litigants betrayed by incompetent counsels, the author makes the reader senses his insider's frustration with his own profession. He contends that his book was driven by the dilemma of the legal profession of: whether lawyers should be in it for self-enrichment or moral conduct? It might be quite demanding to retrieve information from the book if you are in a hurry for a court appearance, since the book lacks clear and unified template. However, if you enjoy reading for relaxing and focusing on deep thoughts and strategies, this book has it. For example, it stresses on slow talking in clear and systematic manner in many effective ways. Slow, slow, and slow talking in front of the court is highly stressed for reporting and logical reasons of trying evidence and appeal. It then addresses the issue of not repeating evidence unless there is a specific need other than rehearsing it. The author alerts the self representatives of the perils of objection to adversaries and explains reasonable situations when objection is a plus. He then stresses on the fact that the self-representative should realize that both the judge and the jury have mere cursory knowledge of the lawsuit at hand which requires the pro se not to assume any previous knowledge and to lay the foundation form beginning to end in logical fashion. Ethos, pathos, and logos of Aristotle describe the elements of his closing arguments. Those are summarized as attitude of orator, his passion and emotion, and finally his logical analysis in summing up his case to the court. He emphasizes understatement and simple common sense as effective tools to abstract truth from a complexly intermingling situation. The author addresses the science part of trying legal suits and left the art part to the reader to labor at. His strategies of searching for the truth extend far beyond material evidence to moral character, personal credibility, and evidence's relevance and credibility. He then devises a strategy of seeking the truth along all those dimensions of evidence. Mohamed F. El-Hewie Author of Essentials of Weightlifting and Strength Training | ||
 | The Wright Brothers and the Invention of the Aerial Age | |
| "How history gives birth to a new age?" | 2006-07-27 |
| Discount the "genius" factor, the elder brother, Wilbur Wright, argued. It was an aggregation of peculiar circumstances that led the two brothers to succeed where many predecessors had failed. The author describes those peculiar circumstances in lengthy details that could be summed up as follows:
1- The religious, rigid, uncompromising father of two sons and a daughter had passed to them his character of steadfastness and distrust in the world around them. That isolated them from others. Their introversion contributed to their dedication to hard work. Hard work led to learning of new skills. Their introverted sister stayed unmarried until 52. Her income and strong dedication to her family supported the odd and bizarre experimentation of her two brothers. The feud of their father with the church led them to move and the two brothers failed to graduate from high school. Thus, they faced more hard work and despair. 2- Starting a new business in printing local newspapers helped them in two ways. They followed the scientific progress of previous flight efforts by the German and French and mastered new mechanical skills on how to make machines work. A friend of the Wrights sneaks under a printer to figure out how it does the printing despite its mute existence, to no avail. The Wrights entrusted machines to do impossible tasks that defy common sense. 3- Their failure in the printing business got them into the bicycle business. Here, they refined their mechanical skill further but learned a pivotal key to their future success. That is: control. Bicycles are the most complex machines that man has invented since they depend on the instinct of brain control in order to maintain equilibrium (balance). That control factor will give birth to the new age of flight. 4- Their literary knowledge gained from printing, mechanical craftsmanship gained from designing bicycles and fixing printers, had coincided with the role of the Smithsonian Institute and a childhood's toy of a helicopter brought to them by their father. The death of a famous German glider few years earlier induced them to approach the Smithsonian Institute for information on flight machines. 5- Living in rural Ohio in 1900 afforded them the space and time to aspire for a new dream to fame and wealth. The vast landscape and observation of nature sustained their curiosity and hope for attaining fame. They rose above their neighbors with their noisy and huge boxy flight machines, while their father had failed to rise above his adversaries in the local church. 6- What set them different from others was the common sense of lay persons. The three dominant steps for attempting flying at those days were: obtaining power for propulsion using heavy steam engines, starting with small models of manned machines, and gliding. The Wright's common sense of mastering "control" first of all stemmed from their bicycle experience. 7- They started with unmanned kites, worked on their aeronautic control and equilibrium when airborne, then manned the controllable glider, and finally added power to it. Progressively, they pushed for distance, airborne time, and altitude, until gained confidence in their ability to control take off, balance, and landing. Their contribution to the flight is founded on their demonstration that control of an airborne, heavier than air flying machine was within reach. (Haven't birds mastered that principle for millenniums?) 8- In 1908, they were transformed from destitute common people into world figures welcomed by the monarchs of Italy, Britain, Spain, and Germany. In a photograph prior to flying over the Governor's Island in New York, Wilbur looked miserably depressed while three New York Policemen watched him gambling with his life. He realized the perils of being alone in a new age. With a suit, tie, and soft hat, approaching the age of 40, conquering the air alone with no substantial gain, frightened the elder brother. Yet, he died from typhoid fever shortly afterwards. He always felt that success and happiness had passed him by since his early years. In a Carnival to honor their achievement, Wilbur felt being used for advertisement gimmicks for the city. His depression stood in his way to rejoice his historic accomplishment. 9- Their rigid upbringing, though aided them battle the painstaking experimentation with aeronautics; it hampered their ability to excel in the world of businessmen. Their patent did not offer them secure, affluent living and the fast pace technology had surpassed them sooner than they expected. They were born to serve the history and the only reward they got was honor. They lived and died in their father's home, unmarried to the end. Mohamed F. El-Hewie Author of Essentials of Weightlifting and Strength Training | ||
 | Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit | |
| "Remarkable undertaking by a blessed man" | 2006-07-09 |
| I approached this book with preset cynicism for two reasons. One, the author is a politician who was bitterly defeated by a much less qualified candidate. So, I expected a book filled with revenge and pity. It does have some, yet could be forgiven. Secondly, Al Gore's performance during his presidential recount was that of a drugged man out of touch with reality. Only after he accepted defeat, was when his spirit lit up. Glancing through this book would erase every feeling of misgiving. The man has indeed done great work to raise global awareness about the eminent danger of environmental crisis. He spared no effort in his crusade for overcoming inaction and indifference to the environment. He started with his sister's smoking problem and got the reader's attention of how smoking had claimed the life of a beautiful and talented lady because of the public ignorance about the danger of smoking in the 1960's. There is an impressive ad from those days that reads "Most doctors smoke Camel". In his campaign to raise environmental awareness, Al Gore relied on his personal and political assets to depict his major concerns in vivid and colorful photography. Those were taken by satellites, airplanes, nuclear submarines, and on-foot travel. No single aspect of the impact of global warming has been overlooked. It depicts the effect of global warming on mosquito habitat and disease transmission, on urban flooding, on arctic polar bears and Antarctic penguins, on skin cancer and hurricanes,etc. He did that with tables, diagrams, charts, and pre- and post effect images. Gore's blessing with a wealthy and influential father and successful political career are brought to the benefit of mankind through this magnificent undertaking. No more, one could hold a grudge towards his presidential failure that paved the way for Bush's disastrous blunders. Mr. "Bore" might not be politically popular, but his mission on sparing the delicate balance of the Earth environment is remarkably unique. His latest imitation of how Bill Clinton talks effectively and scores brilliantly is obviously a transient state. Let Gore be Gore, may the environment be spared! The book is designed in a boyish style like those high school projects. It contains full ads that span two pages, different font colors and forms, lacks uniformity of display, and shows unfocused, yet driven authoring, whose passion outpaces his organizational skill. His personal stories and photographs of his family and childhood present the innocence and naivety of adolescence. Those are also the traits that let him tackle such controversial and hypothetical topic that bears uncertain dates for occurring in real life, yet might strike with eminent hardship to mankind. Mohamed F. El-Hewie Author of Essentials of Weightlifting and Strength Training | ||
 | Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit | |
| "Remarkable undertaking by a blessed man" | 2006-07-09 |
| I approached this book with preset cynicism for two reasons. One, the author is a politician who was bitterly defeated by a much less qualified candidate. So, I expected a book filled with revenge and pity. It does have some, yet could be forgiven. Secondly, Al Gore's performance during his presidential recount was that of a drugged man out of touch with reality. Only after he accepted defeat, was when his spirit lit up. Glancing through this book would erase every feeling of misgiving. The man has indeed done great work to raise global awareness about the eminent danger of environmental crisis. He spared no effort in his crusade for overcoming inaction and indifference to the environment. He started with his sister's smoking problem and got the reader's attention of how smoking had claimed the life of a beautiful and talented lady because of the public ignorance about the danger of smoking in the 1960's. There is an impressive ad from those days that reads "Most doctors smoke Camel". In his campaign to raise environmental awareness, Al Gore relied on his personal and political assets to depict his major concerns in vivid and colorful photography. Those were taken by satellites, airplanes, nuclear submarines, and on-foot travel. No single aspect of the impact of global warming has been overlooked. It depicts the effect of global warming on mosquito habitat and disease transmission, on urban flooding, on arctic polar bears and Antarctic penguins, on skin cancer and hurricanes,etc. He did that with tables, diagrams, charts, and pre- and post effect images. Gore's blessing with a wealthy and influential father and successful political career are brought to the benefit of mankind through this magnificent undertaking. No more, one could hold a grudge towards his presidential failure that paved the way for Bush's disastrous blunders. Mr. "Bore" might not be politically popular, but his mission on sparing the delicate balance of the Earth environment is remarkably unique. His latest imitation of how Bill Clinton talks effectively and scores brilliantly is obviously a transient state. Let Gore be Gore, may the environment be spared! The book is designed in a boyish style like those high school projects. It contains full ads that span two pages, different font colors and forms, lacks uniformity of display, and shows unfocused, yet driven authoring, whose passion outpaces his organizational skill. His personal stories and photographs of his family and childhood present the innocence and naivety of adolescence. Those are also the traits that let him tackle such controversial and hypothetical topic that bears uncertain dates for occurring in real life, yet might strike with eminent hardship to mankind. Mohamed F. El-Hewie Author of Essentials of Weightlifting and Strength Training | ||
 | The Truth: The Only Fitness Book You'll Ever Need | |
 | "Great price, full of hype, poor on ideas" | 2006-06-28 |
| Frank's obsession of his physical attraction dominates the book. The arching of his upper back must be due to his lack of understanding of esthetics. He deadlifts and squats in 40 pounds barbell, which is ironic for a man of his size. Furthermore, his deadlift form is totally flawed by arching the spines and stiffening the knees. Then he front squats with crossed arms, which hints to stiff shoulder structures. His front seated press descends below the upper tip of the sternum (the manubrium). Those four technical flaws show that young and motivated lifters with little experience could do more harm than good due to poor understanding of the basic laws of mechanics. The good price of having colored book with clear and neat pictures is undermined by the extreme poverty of ideas. Each exercise is described on the right hand page in one or two meager paragraphs that depict superficial understanding of anatomy or physiology of exercise. For example, an advanced tip given in the bench presses advises the reader to keep his back in constant contact with the bench. That does not explain the purpose of such action. A tip on wide-grip bench-press explains that such grip hits the outer parts of the chest. That is also untrue. The wide grip emphasizes tension on different combination of the rotator cuff and the external muscles of the shoulders. The fundamental question that this and other books raise is: for how long the fitness industry will be commandeered with uneducated, unprofessional, and self-proclaimed experts whose total ignorance with world trends in fitness and sports is blatantly obvious? Weightlifting has made great strides in understanding the proper load of resistance and the proper volume of training that promote strength in pogressive incremental workout. Major muscles around the spines should be the focus of everyday training. Three exercises could do it all when planned strategically. Here are the major hazardous outcomes of following the model of those self-proclaimed experts: 1- Imbalance: strengthening without constant testing of balance of muscles and bones during motion leads to insidious imbalance. The hunch back of the author and his stiff shoulder during front squat are vivid example of imbalance. Imbalance leads to injury and early quitting of exercise altogether. The author's naivety led him to believe that achieving a status of commercial model qualifies him to instruct the public about exercise. The complexity of health issues involved in exercising requires more than personal bodybuilding achievements. 2- Injury: developing huge peripheral muscles (upper arms) without proportionate spinal strength (deadlift and squat loads as measures) could lead to frequent and life long spinal injury due to unstable spines and strong hooks (arms). The spines must be the center of focus of all exercises in order for vertebrate animals to safely adapt to motion and resistance. 3- Waste: talented and motivated people such as the author waste their life's work and energy in unscientific and poorly structured training. The author improvises the routine of 4 sets of 20, 15, 12, and 10 repetitions in exercises such as the squat. That is absurd. Modern trends have benefited from the century long experience of progressive incremental resistance with few exercises of complex nature rather than the endless repetitions of light resistance. Mohamed F. El-Hewie Author of Essentials of Weightlifting and Strength Training | ||
 | The Truth: The Only Fitness Book You'll Ever Need | |
| "Great price, full of hype, poor on ideas" | 2006-06-27 |
| Frank's obsession of his physical attraction dominates the book. The arching of his upper back must be due to his lack of understanding of esthetics. He deadlifts and squats in 40 pounds barbell, which is ironic for a man of his size. Furthermore, his deadlift form is totally flawed by arching the spines and stiffening the knees. Then he front squats with crossed arms, which hints to stiff shoulder structures. His front seated press descends below the upper tip of the sternum (the manubrium). Those four technical flaws show that young and motivated lifters with little experience could do more harm than good due to poor understanding of the basic laws of mechanics.
The good price of having colored book with clear and neat pictures is undermined by the extreme poverty of ideas. Each exercise is described on the right hand page in one or two meager paragraphs that depict superficial understanding of anatomy or physiology of exercise. For example, an advanced tip given in the bench presses advises the reader to keep his back in constant contact with the bench. That does not explain the purpose of such action. A tip on wide-grip bench-press explains that such grip hits the outer parts of the chest. That is also untrue. The wide grip emphasizes tension on different combination of the rotator cuff and the external muscles of the shoulders. The fundamental question that this and other books raise is: for how long the fitness industry will be commandeered with uneducated, unprofessional, and self-proclaimed experts whose total ignorance with world trends in fitness and sports is blatantly obvious? Weightlifting has made great strides in understanding the proper load of resistance and the proper volume of training that promote strength in pogressive incremental workout. Major muscles around the spines should be the focus of everyday training. Three exercises could do it all when planned strategically. Here are the major hazardous outcomes of following the model of those self-proclaimed experts: 1- Imbalance: strengthening without constant testing of balance of muscles and bones during motion leads to insidious imbalance. The hunch back of the author and his stiff shoulder during front squat are vivid example of imbalance. Imbalance leads to injury and early quitting of exercise altogether. The author's naivety led him to believe that achieving a status of commercial model qualifies him to instruct the public about exercise. The complexity of health issues involved in exercising requires more than personal bodybuilding achievements. 2- Injury: developing huge peripheral muscles (upper arms) without proportionate spinal strength (deadlift and squat loads as measures) could lead to frequent and life long spinal injury due to unstable spines and strong hooks (arms). The spines must be the center of focus of all exercises in order for vertebrate animals to safely adapt to motion and resistance. 3- Waste: talented and motivated people such as the author waste their life's work and energy in unscientific and poorly structured training. The author improvises the routine of 4 sets of 20, 15, 12, and 10 repetitions in exercises such as the squat. That is absurd. Modern trends have benefited from the century long experience of progressive incremental resistance with few exercises of complex nature rather than the endless repetitions of light resistance. Mohamed F. El-Hewie Author of Essentials of Weightlifting and Strength Training | ||
 | Muscle Mechanics | |
| "Too much muscle isolation and machine dependency" | 2006-05-30 |
| Muscle Mechanics (Paperback) Too much muscle isolation and machine dependency Frìdreric Delavier's "Strength Training Anatomy" has stimulated the new trend of artistic animation of muscular action by personal trainers desperate for opportunities. In this book, the author emphasizes muscular animation, in one every three photos, for no other purpose than showing artwork. The author is afflicted with the American syndrome of muscle isolation during resistance training and fascination with machines. That is demonstrated by the author's compromised ability to serve his readers professionally and intelligently. (Skipping the first three chapters for later comments) Chapters 4 through 8 constitute the bulk of the book. Here the author adopts boring and inefficient template of 4-descriptives to describe all exercises indiscriminately. The four descriptive are: target muscles, joint motion, alignment and posture, and motion and stabilization. The 4-descriptive template is applied on the exercises of the trunk, lower body, and upper body with pushing and pulling. That does not address crucial issues such as: What sequence should the reader uses for safe and optimum training? Where does warm up fit in? What guarantees balanced body proportions if one follows such haphazard program? The last chapter on program design is remotely linked to the bulk of the book and constitutes a burden in adding things together. On page 103, for example, the author describes the Barbell Hang Clean using the same 4-descriptive template. I counted the word "quickly" four times, under the motion and stabilization item. The entire description of the Hang Clean is flawed and shows that the author is clueless on the mechanics of the Clean. That is aside from the fact that the Hang Clean should not be described without starting with Standard Clean first of all. The hang Clean is partial and supplementary to the Standard Clean. Both exercises entail head and pelvis bouncing and elbow fixation during the pull by the axial muscles, with utmost emphasis on the closeness of the bar trajectory to the body. The book's advice to initiate the Hang Clean with explosive jump is foolish. Experienced lifters do not jump during the pull, but rather aggressively hop on the feet balls without messing up the alignment of the centers of gravity of the body and the barbell. The book also introduces many distractive moves such as one-hand press on one-leg, trunk extension, trunk extension on the edge of a bench, side leg lunge, and multiple versions of the same exercises that are redundant and useless. Going back to the first three chapters, the book handled muscle subsystem grouping in a creative manner by using longitudinal, lateral, and oblique muscle systems that stabilize the body in the sagittal, coronal, and transverse planes. Here, the author did not utilize his artistic skill in emphasizing the grouping graphically but rather depends on hand drawings that are much inferior to those that follow. Chapter 3 on optimal exercise technique is a waste since the author did not adopt any correct technique in the rest of the book. The dumbbell snatch on page 105 is flawed in that the dumbbell is too far away from the heels of the lifter. The body weight stationary lunge, page 95, is entirely flawed since the torso leans forward during the lung and could strain the low back and deform the shoulders. Finally, the author's motivation and energy, and the potential for refinement should be utilized in bettering the book concepts and structure. Instead of selling to the people what might entice them on the short term, the author should strive for long term philosophy of enhancing fitness in simple, practical, and reasonable manner. Look what the Chinese, and ex-communists are doing with down to earth facilities, superb technique, and disciplined training!! Mohamed F. El-Hewie Author of Essentials of Weightlifting and Strength Training | ||
 | Teach Yourself Visually Weight Training | |
| "Workout endlessly and get nowhere" | 2005-09-14 |
| The graphic design of this book is impeccable. Also, the book's binding and readability are fairly decent.
The major flaw of the book is its shallow approach to weight training. The girl pictured on the book cover and inside is anorexic are represents poor image to fit females, despite her beautiful hair. Working out with 3-pound dumbbells is counter-productive. She should have been instructed on gaining muscle mass with adequate protein intake in her diet and proper general fitness training prior to indulging in isolated exercising of individual muscles. Also, the picture of the man perfroming barbell leg-lunges depicts a flawed technique where the lower back is rounded, which led to the limited backward exntension of the rear leg. Exercising each region of the body by weights requires endless training with minimal outcome. It is a frustrating and futile way of teaching people how to workout with weight. The book is divided into many chapters addressing regional exercises with total disregard on the modern emphasis on sports-like training as a practical and efficient way of altering physique and building healthy and robust musculature and lung and heart fitness. The book falls into this category of media published by wealthy individuals whose experience and knowledge with proper fitness planning is questionable at best. Beginners of weight training could make greater progress with simple exercises such as running, push-up, and chin-ups. These three compound exercises, besides emphasizing the major muscle groups of the thighs and shoulders and exquisitely workout the low-back, they also enhance the cardiovascular function, which improves general health and fitness. | ||
 | Men's Health Home Workout Bible: A Do-It-Yourself Guide to Burning Fat and Building Muscle | |
| "Exquisite collection of exercises, risky exercise planning" | 2005-03-19 |
| Many exercises described in this book are unique in their efficacy of strengthening and their unfamiliarity to most fitness trainers in the western hemisphere. Examples of these exercises that make this book invaluable are:
1- Behind-the-knee deadlift (named as "hack squat"). 2- Step-up with barbell on an elevated platform. 3- Overhead shoulder shrugging and overhead squat. 4- Jump squat, Good Morning. Power Clean, and Muscle Snatch. 5- Bulgarian split squat on a chair 6- One-legged squat without weights. 7- Exercising with household objects such as a galloon of water bottle and chairs. Other positive features in the book are: 1- One of the authors demonstrates all the exercises in person, which proves his practical experience, with only few flaws such as rounded lower back during dumbbell-Clean and good morning bending. This guy carries the facial features of Al Gore, with his lack of smile and unwarranted seriousness. 2- The exercises are categorized in four major groups that simplify their applicability. These are exercises with own bodyweight, dumbbells' exercises, barbell exercises, and Plyometrics and stretches. Each group contains exercises that emphasize midsection, shoulders and back, arms, and legs. 3- The book text is simple and mostly accurate, except in few places such as the author's claim that wrist-wraps solve the wrist pain during front-squat. This is bogus. Also, the muscle anatomy chapter is accurate and simple, showing only the superficial muscles. It omits important muscles such as the Serratus anterior, coracobrachialis, Rhomboideus, and lavatory scapulae. The Serratus muscle in particular is very important to know in bodybuilding since it is often paralyzed with lifting heavy dumbbells without warming up through pinching of the long thoracic nerve. The major drawbacks of the book are: 1- The exercise-sequence is flawed and could cause many physical injures. The author does not warn against indulging in extremely intense exercises without proper local warming up of the relevant muscles. Most of his plans start with abdominal exercises and end up with calve exercises. Abdominal stressing prior to lower back warming up could lead to spinal disc herniation. Also, you do not need to exercise your abdominal muscles in redundancy. If you run for example, then your abdominal muscles are already worked out and there is no need to double the work unless you have specific explanation. 2- Many exercises are improperly thrown in a sequence that does not sound practical or efficient. The shoulder Press for example is assigned to separate exercise from the Clean, while both should be combined in a single compound exercise. 3- Although the aggregation of the exercises is versatile and thoughtful, the author fails to prioritize them according to the frequency of their application. The Clean, Squat, and Shoulder Press, for example should be practiced on daily basis, while the side lunges are for individual needs and only should be inserted when the collateral ligaments of the knees need be stressed. 4- The high level of the author's fitness and occupation with exercise diversity may work against him. He could expose himself and others to injuries by such expansive scope of exercises. School students should not repeat such mistake of distractive exercising, but rather learn how to choose exercises with high yield and complex performance. 5- All exercises are described at the "Start" and "Finish" phases without any hints on the relevant anatomical function. For example, the author does not warn against caving in the chest while squatting, pressing the barbell off-vertical while performing overhead pressing, or tightening the lower back during lifting from the floor. | ||
 | 50 Ways to a Healthy Heart (Thorsons Directions for Life) | |
| "Great read, despite few unsubstantiated personal advices" | 2005-03-14 |
| The publication date of this book on September 1, 2001 preceded the author's death with only one day, at the age of 79. The author's age is relevant to the tone of the book, which involved too much emphasis on the value of wine, sex, stress, and walking, which occupy the center of mind of old people. In many instances in the book, the author addresses readers of age 60 and older. Most of the author's advices are very personal and reflect the nature of well disciplined and educated person, despite few imperfections. Some of the chapters' titles reflect the odd nature of an aloof professional, such as "Learn Greek", "Create your own stress", "Take Viagra", "Sleep at the office", "Bare your teeth", "Don't give in to your mobile", and "Phone your way to fitness". The 50 ways for healthy heart are equally split into five segments on nutrition, stress, environment, activity, and attitude. In the "Introduction", this renowned heart surgeon reveals his humble way of dignified living. He lives on a monthly $700 pension; never accepted money from those he tended medical attention, and turned down offers to make millions of dollars. The 10 chapters on NUTRITION address these issues: 1- A prophecy that obesity will be the epidemic of the 21st century. He contends that diets make people fat, sick, and depressed and a simple mechanism is to burn fat and build muscles. He sets 22% body fat as an upper limit for women and 17% for men. 2- Eating the right fat (such as monounsaturated ones in the olive oil, rapeseed oil, hemp oil, peanut, and avocado) is the true winner in reducing bad cholesterol. Yet, he stress on the need for moderation even with god fats. 3- "Drink Red Wine" is one of his poor advices, since he admits that grape and elderly berry juices are almost as good as red wine and that wine could be your enemy if taken in excess. In addition, his advocacy for red wine neglects the negative impact on reducing activity. 4- Proper chewing, walking with groceries for exercise, concentration during eating, eating with passion, relaxing while eating, and shopping frequently in order to maintain fresh vegetables with untainted vitamin content. 5- Eating vitamins for combating the free radicals that cause cancer, disease, and aging. 6- Using Crete Island, Greek, as a role model for cutting heart attacks by consuming more vegetables, fruits, and red wine and less meat (32% less tham northern Europe) and sausage (54% less). (The author died in Cyprus, across from Greece in the Mediterranean). 7- Eating the most important minerals (potassium, magnesium, and selenium) that greatly impact the heart function. 8- Criticizing Cholesterol testing before the age of 35 for men, 45 for women, and over 75, as unnecessary. 9- Emphasizing the need for natural living with moderation on eating saturated fats, drinking wine, and using chocolate as an example for its very high content of poly-phenols compared to tomato The 10 chapters on STRESS address the following issues: 1- Recognizes the need for stress as a motivation and sorts out the things that are unworthy for stressing. 2- The mobile phone techno-stress and the traps of TV, Internet, and Information. 3- Viagra for men, apomorphine for women, modern sexual impotence, and the role of enjoyment of sex in protecting the heart. 4- The role of music in taking our fear away, enhancing problem solving, balm for the soul, and relief for the heart. 5- Midday 30-minute nap in the office as relaxing as two hours of night sleep. 6- Quality time off of 3 weeks for action, swimming, or hiking. 7- Sleep well to combat weakness, sickness, and impotence, but too much sleep also causes heart disease. 8- Cooling down during conflicts and learning to fly and let off steam. 9- Relaxed thinking by walking or looking out for a window. 10- Stopping smoking by six different methods, from cold-turkey abstinence to using Zyban, new medicine to block brain receptors for longing for cigarettes. The 10 chapters on ENVIRONMENT address the following issues: 1- Avoidance of noise and passive smoking. 2- Caring for workplace safety and cleanliness. 3- Marriage and relationships as the most important business in the world. 4- Quitting a stinking job before sickening your heart. 5- The role of sun and fresh are on health 6- The role of pets on our happiness and diligence. The 10 chapters on ACTIVITY address the following issues: 1- Starting now in sport will lower risk of heart attack by 72%. This is a contradiction of the author's claim that Red Wine drinking reduces heart disease by 60%. If exercise can do 72%, while red wine only 60% in addition to its detrimental effect of exercising ability, then exercise is the way to go. 2- Getting into sport at any age is a winning lifestyle and great role model. 3- Fitness exercising while on the phone is the best part of the book. It raises you awareness to the possibility of gaining a lot from every minute of your life if you know how to benefit from exercise even while talking on the phone. 4- Blood donation as a way of removing ferrite from the body and protecting the heart from the free radicals, while saving the lives of others. 5- Walking 2 miles per day cuts hear attacks by 50% and that exercise lowers your resting heart rate from 70 to 50 per minute thus saving you 13 million heartbeats per year. 6- The importance of patience and planning long-term exercise plan. The 10 chapters on ATTITUDE address the following issues: 1- Admitting to weakness as a sign of strength in reasoning. 2- Laughing loud as a healing process. 3- Releasing grief is safer than hiding it. 4- Managing anger relieves the immune system and prevents cancer and heart disease. 5- Honesty saves the heart the trouble of stressful concerns of lying. 6- Friends and social living defeat illness. 7- Programming the mind by deleting, relaxing, loading, and believing enhances healthy living. | ||
 | Basic Routines For Massive Muscles: Beef-It Training Secrets | |
| "Invaluable expertise, simple and practical presentation" | 2005-03-13 |
| The combination of eloquence and personal expertise makes this book unique in the fact that its author presented raw insight into the practice of bodybuilding without any attempt to insert unnecessary jargon or borrowing irrelevant data from others, as follows,
Chapter 1, "Motivation and setting goals", uses nine inspiring photos to address issues such as getting strong, leanness, proportion, ultra-fitness, body types, and level of expertise. Chapter 2, "Somatotyping. Do you need it?", addresses the difficulty of assessing the mix of end-, meso-, and ectomorphy in various body types. It presents seven cases of bodybuilders and attempts to discern a formula of 3-digits to describe that mix. Chapter 3, "The training log. The silent reminder", discusses the importance of documenting nutrition, exercise related issues, injuries, and body measurements. Chapter 4, "Machines or weight. Which are better?", is an eloquent and balanced discussion on the pros and cons of machines and free weights. It displays the importance of balancing the many factors that interplay in making the choice between the two. Chapter 5, "Reps under scrutiny: challenging muscle fiber contraction", discusses many issues related to reps, such as straight-set reps, cheat reps, forced reps, strict reps, rest-pause reps, superset reps, giant reps, and pre-exhaust reps. It does that in concise and balanced manner. Chapter 6, "Injuries: How to avoid them", is a casual discussion of injuries pertaining to bodybuilding. It deals with the importance of warm-up, sequence of exercises, importance of form, importance of stretch, working environment, and common mistakes bodybuilders do. Here, the author displays his own experience with very convincing reasoning. He also shows the troubles with bodybuilding as a sport that deals with limited and imposed number of movements that requires constant awareness before attempting to tackle new movements. Chapter 7, "Cycle training: Pushing to a peak", discusses the concept of periodization and progressive buildup of load in order to peak muscular size and strength through gradual increase of exercise numbers, sets, and amount of weight over time, until contest. Chapter 8, "Power thinking. Mental programming for success", discusses the role of setting goals, visualization, inspiration, and concentration in motivating your mind to work out wisely and aggressively. Chapter 9, "Super structuring your routine", deals with intensity of exercising, progression of load, rep and set relationship, style and speed of exercising, frequency of workout, attitude of workout, and the most important virtue of successful bodybuilders of viewing barbells as tools for gaining muscles not as weights to be heaved up. Chapter 10, "Recuperation. Mending the muscle", deals with overtraining, relaxation, stress, sleep, and the importance of sun exposure and fresh air. Chapter 11, "Body fat percentage", discusses diet, diuretics, thyroxin and vitamin usage in burning and redistributing fat, and aerobic exercising. Unlike other books on the subject, the author clearly recognizes the need for aerobic to build fat-burning enzymatic machinery that complements the muscle-building machinery of weight training. Chapter 12, "Metabolism training", discusses the effect of exercise, aging, and nutrition on reaching the anabolic state. Chapter 13, "Ultimate nutrition. Muscle building and the food factor", presents very concise, doable, and reasonable meals of 2303 to 2657 Calories in merely two pages, without hassles or jargon. Chapter 14, "Derailing the sticking point", deals with rest, lay offs, and holding back that are real life issues in long term training. Chapter 15, "The muscle sleep. Snoozing for size", offers good insight into the need for extra rest in order to peak muscle build-up. Chapters 16 thru 23, present major and effective exercises for the shoulders, chest, abdominals, back, quads, calves, and arms. The display of exercises in these chapters makes this book one of the best in bodybuilding. The exercises are fewer than six for each region and are the very fundamental of any weight training. They are presented with sketches and black and white photographs. The rest of the book deals with tanning and supplements. The few reasons that made me give it four stars are: 1) The author overlooked the seriousness of massive bodyweight, muscles or not, on health and sounds to praise adding massive muscles without commenting on the future of those artificially pumped up muscles. 2) The author omitted any discussion on the frightening facial expressions of many bodybuilders that repulse many people from the sport. Many weightlifters develop awesome strength without looking mean or withdrawn from society. 3) The author omitted the need for functionality and detailed sequence of exercising that prevent grotesque deformation of joints for life, due to massively developed muscles that are not tested for flexible performance in real life. | ||
 | I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story | |
| "Very well narrated and rich drama" | 2005-03-03 |
| I previously reviewed "Escape in Iraq: the Thomas Hamill story" and gave it four stars. The Jessica Lynch story is narrated by a clever author. His choice of the chapters' title and sequence makes a lot of sense. Almost all the titles are single words accurately descriptive of the chapters' content. The most striking feature of the author's style is the great depth of his understanding of the political and social factors that interplay in government-citizens relationship. He did not attempt to take sides between the warring governments, nor did he attempt to raise Jessica to a status she is not entitled to. He merely spoke the truth and filtered myths and lies.
The book sensibly describes the socioeconomic upbringing of a little, young, poor, and undereducated American woman who enlists in the Army as the only resolve out of the financial despair and emptiness of the impoverished state of West Virginia. Her dream is to see the world and become a kindergarten teacher, to hold a lot of babies. The army recruiters promised her with travel and never minded her merely 100-pound bodyweight, or her prescription glasses. The boot-camp drill sergeant treated her brashly and demeaned the people from her impoverished state of West Virginia. Out of her despair, she took it as well-meaning method of breaking her down and rebuilding her anew in order to suite soldiers'life. Her best friend Lori Piestewa came from similar background. Both Jessica and Lori drove five-ton utility trucks from Kuwait to Nasiriyah. Yet, Lori died there and her body was dug out of the sand by the Marines. Jessica survived, with multiple broken bones and nerve injuries. The infuriating fact about the poor judgment of the Army is allowing a weak, little, female to drive a truck in unaccustomed terrains, during wartime, and with no reliable instructions. The commander of her company, captain Troy King, is a dental assistant who was supposed to execute given instructions of avoiding a populated city like Nasiriyah by skirting it through a different highway. Instead, he drove his caravan to their death, which came in the form of attacks by civilian-dressed Iraqis. The destruction of Jessica's Humvee incapacitated her. That was the first fighting in the war. She was taken to the hospital and treated until the occupying American army freed her and transported her to Germany. The author strikes smart balance between the many concerned parties, as follows. 1) He questions the allegation by the Iraqi lawyer, Mohammed Odeh Al Rehaief, who claimed that Jessica was slapped and abused by Saddam's Fedayeen and contends that it never happened, since Jessica did not recall such event. 2) He questions the military story of publishing a video that shows special forces rescuing Jessica using night vision goggles, attacking the hospital, restraining patients, and frightening medical staff. 3) He rebuts the falsification of Jessica's fighting the enemy until the last bullet and explains the realistic events that took place during her injury, which did not involve gunshots. 4) He exonerates the Iraqi medical staff of malicious intent and justifies their limited medical resources during the wartime. Moreover, he sympathizes with murdered Iraqi children and grandmothers by American bombs. 5) He honestly conveyed clearly and straightforward Jessica's mom, Dee, resentment for the medals and publicity and wish to have her daughter the way she joined the Army. 6) He did not forget the loss of her friend, Lori, and put her family's picture in the book. In addition, he addressed the protest of others who were upset on the exaggerated welcome and treatment of a soldier who never fired a shot at the enemy and the government that takes advantage of a low ranking soldier to sell the war to the people and for presidential election gain. 7) He described in many details the well-meaning people who sent letters, donated money and time to renovate Jessica's house and hometown for a celebrated return home. The two things the author did not do are: 1) He did stress on the great benefits of celebrating a living soldier who will go through very traumatizing post-conflict syndrome after all the fuss of medals and publicity is over. As for those who lost their loved ones and very little could be done about their grief, the celebration of the returned soldier does not diminish the significance of the role of the soldiers lost in action. 2) As a humanistic matter, the thousands of lost Iraqi lives and many more thousands of injured Iraqis should have been stressed strongly. Those will never get the level of care of western hospitals and they are not enemies to anyone. Their neglect and tragedy is causing the lingering of deadly occupation. It is very clear that the occupation of Iraq did not take into consideration the enormous loss of lives and gigantic resources needed to care of the injured without global help in due time. | ||
 | The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference | |
| "Too many interesting stories with little focus" | 2005-03-03 |
| After I read "Blink" by the same author, I become familiar with his characteristic style. He uses many references and tells many stories that are informative and amusing for a young person with little scope of the big world, or someone who wants to kill time.
The idea of this book is not new at all. It is merely a rehash of what is widely known in dealing with issues related to herd manipulation, be that disease epidemics or marketing. The so many stories in the book confound its theme and undermine the author's ability to communicate clear and convincing ideas. For example, he claims that by understanding the rules of epidemics, we could manipulate their outcome and mentions issues like teenage smoking, movies, etc. Yet, his stories seem to show his desire for flexing his wide knowledge in every field in life. He talks about syphilis, AIDS, TV show, research, while blurring the main highlights of the book. In Chapter 1, "The three rules of epidemics", he twists the concept of "vector" into his fancy rule of "The law of the few", twists the concept of "host resistance" to his fancy "Stickiness factor", twists the concept of "host to vector interaction" to his fancy "The power of context". Then he builds the entire book, with so many references on such twisted inventions. In chapter 2, "The law of the few", he merely stretches the causative vector in any epidemics into connectors, informed mediators, and salesmen and demonstrates each in many stories. Chapter 3, "The stickiness factor", explains the impact of the vector on the host through case studies on Sesame Street, Blue's clues show, and education virus. Chapters 4 and 5, "The power of context", are full with stories such as the fall in New York City crime rate and Sesame Street to demonstrate the importance of the environment, where the vector and host interact, on the outcome of epidemics. Chapters 6 and 7, "case study", many more stories to explain the already told many stories. | ||
 | Treason : Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism | |
 | "Total waste of the human mind" | 2005-03-02 |
| She is fighting evil and defending goodness yet she does not know who is who, or where and how to find either. Her thoughts are bizarre and her constant posing on the cover of her books signals narcissism. Some of the bizarre thoughts in her book are as follows:
Chapter 1, "Fifty years of treason", she contends that liberals side with the enemy whenever the nation is attacked from within or without, respect the Third World savages, mock Americans who love their country, demand that the nation treat enemies like friends, lift sanction, pull our troops, and reason with adversaries. She does not explain how such labeling and stereotyping be distinguished from fascism. Chapter 2, "Alger Hiss, liberal darling" takes the issue of a soviet spy and labels every opponent as disloyal to America. Chapter 3, "No communist here" attempts to exonerate Joe McCarthy by claiming that he only fought communists loyal to Stalin just like apprehending al-Qaeda associates linked to bin-Laden. Chapter 4, "The indispensable Joe McCarthy", contends that McCarthy never terrorized people purposelessly but rather was protecting the federal government from soviet sympathizers. Chapter 5, "Victims of McCarthyism- the liberals' Mayflower" is the third chapter defending McCarthyism and blaming the liberals for inventing the insane "red scare" labeling of him. Chapter 6, "But were there communists in the State Department" claims that liberals battle for the truth is propaganda and endless brainwash. How many conservative radio anchors profiteering from attacks on liberals 24/7 non-stop? Chapter 7, "Vietnam: oh, how they miss Saigon" claims that Republicans proceed from American's virtue while Democrats are incompetent in military affairs and that JFK was not tough with the enemy. She does not explain why Nixon did not toughen up and do better job or how the Vietnamese became enemy in the first place. They did not have military power and never trespassed America's territories. Chapter 8, "How Truman won the Cold war during Reagan administration" contends that Reagan single-handedly vanquished the evil empire that started during Truman's years. Chapter 9, "Liberals in love: Mash notes to the Kremlin", labels liberals as communists. Chapter 10, "Cold War epitaph: the Hiss affairs at the end of the Cold war" rehashes the same theme of chapter 2, of stereotyping opponents as enemy of the nation. Chapter 11, "Neville Chamberlain has his reasons too: trembling in the shadow of Brie" likens Saddam with Hitler and the Democrats with Chamberlain. The author is oblivious to the fact that America allowed Hitler to rise to the top from 1933 till 1940 without the slightest interference in his maniacal politics and that Chamberlain knew that Britain could not face Germany alone. America was able to avert WWII had it not been dominated by right-wing racist isolationists. George W. Bush ran his first campaign on isolation from international affairs. Only after 9/11 and while learning on the job when he shifted his policy abruptly to international engagement. And, what a tragic mistake he made by his arrogant character and inexperience in global issues? Chapter 12, "North Korea- another opportunity for surrender" contends that the liberals' upset for the "axis of evil" speech by GWB was ludicrous because it is against national security. Thus, any foolish action or arrogant statement by the Republicans should go uncriticized according to this paranoid nut. Chapter 13, "Celebrity traitors: now that I' am sober I watch a lot of news" is the last chapter of her labeling campaign. The book conclusion is typical of all right-wing loyalists who seem to get their instructions from a single source of tyranny. It claims that Israel is the only outpost of democracy in the Middle East and ignores the fact that Israel practices democracy by exclusion of the natives of the land. If the Republican Party practices democracy by denying all Democrats the right of citizenship, would that be called democracy? Israel denies the Palestinians their citizenship in their own land. Could any state in America expel citizens based on religion and allow others of specific religion? Israel does that too. | ||
 | The O'Reilly Factor for Kids : A Survival Guide for America's Families | |
| "Mature approach but too much "pinhead" stuff" | 2005-03-01 |
| As much as I disagree with most of what Bill O'Reilly stands for, I must give him credit for outlining sound moral guidelines for growing up kids. In this book, he covers many issues that relate to family life, basing his advice on his personal stories and many news reports. The book is a culmination of his personal experience. Of course, Bill O'Reilly has to brag about his financial success and has to attack Bill Clinton anywhere and time he opens his mouth or writes.
The book talks about friends, siblings, sex, school life, compromise, death, smoking, alcohol, drugs, and politics. Every topic is presented with "My Story" segment and news report quotation. The worst aspect of the book is the redundant usage of expressions such as "pinhead" and "stupid". When kids do inappropriate things, they should not be labeled pinheads or stupid. What would you expect from a neurotic media anchor? These folks are isolated from society and out of touch of sane lifestyle. So, you could benefit from the rich and long experience of his life and career if you filter his casual and inappropriate approach of choosing proper words. His admittance of not having sex until the age of twenty is inappropriately followed by his belief that others might not believe him. Yet, many people never engage in sexual activity far beyond that age and who are entirely confident in their virtual behavior. His advice that girls should not engage in sex with boyfriends, unless they prove themselves over and over, is reckless. As a responsible figure, he should have advocated marriage as a framework for practicing sex since uncommitted relationships leave long term trauma in people's life. But that is O'Reilly, the man who believes that pornography should not be criminalized as long as it involves only adults. Do not adults engage in raising and educating kids? That is like saying alcohol and cigarettes should only be sold to adults. As if adults are a different species, not factored in public health or education. I wish he wises up after his sex scandal that cost his employer millions of dollars in settlement for his poor judgment. | ||
 | Blink : The Power of Thinking Without Thinking | |
| "Spoiled with too much circumstantialities" | 2005-02-28 |
| As a New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell could not resist the distractive style of writing of an urban writer. Though the book title is concise and descriptive, the entire book brings to my mind a scenario of a preacher reading a convoluted long story in a bar crammed with drunken folks. Too many stories on psychoanalytical research, of military personnel, musicians, corporate deals, police incidents, attacks on the president on USA, etc., are unnecessarily inserted and are confusing the main theme of the book. You won't escape plenty of unnecessary journalistic events such as the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan in the afternoon of March 30, 1981, the Michael Jackson's speaking for Pepsi Corporation, the Amadou Diallo's 1999 murder by police, or the O.J. Simpson verdict.
Thus, instead of tackling the subject of interaction between the unconscious and conscious minds and the environment during decision-making, the author opted to use thousands of words in order to describe the simplest of the thought processes. The chapters' titles show how circumstantial the book presentation is, as follows. The Introduction, "The statue that didn't look right" confuses the error, on the part of an antiques dealer, in consulting inexperienced experts with irrelevant background for evaluating a statue for authenticity with the poor decision-making despite the abundance of information. The author attempts to show that the real experts that discovered the fake statue had made inexplicable, yet correct, snap-decision. He omits the fact that their pervious and long experience was the reason for making such right snap decision. Thus, they did processes abundance of data over many years before reaching that top-notch ability to decide in a blink. Chapter 1, "the theory of thin slices: how a little bit of knowledge goes a long way" attempts to dwell on facial expressions and personal conducts to reach quick conclusions on issues such as love relationships and judging the professionalism of doctors through first impressions. It lists many stories in order to reach the conclusion that one could discern a whole lot of information by mere glancing. It ignores the fact that individual circumstances dictate different reactions. Chapter 2, "the locked door: the secret life of snap decisions" contends that people are not free at will when making decision but rather operating at autopilot mode, with their prejudices and instincts through previous priming forces. Chapter 3, "the Warren Harding error: why we fall for tall, dark, and handsome men" shows how circumstantial the author could get. Instead of analyzing the issue of prejudice and scapegoating based on physical appearance or racial bias, the author wastes many long pages on personalizing the character of senator Warren Harding in the year 1914. Chapter 4, "Paul van Riper's big victory: creating structure from spontaneity" dwells on story of a Vietnam commander to advance the importance of spontaneity and the value of relying on less information in making sound decisions. Chapter 5, "Kenna's dilemma: the right-and wrong- way to ask people what they want" discusses the issue of general impression and perceived image in the success of a musician, the Coca Cola's image, and other corporate advertisement. Chapter 6, "Seven seconds in the Bronx: the delicate art of mind reading" attempts to explain the process of thinking of the police officers who shot Amadou Diallo in 1999 in the Bronx. The author list three arbitrary mistakes that led to the tragically flawed decision to shoot. He omits many confounding factors such as the white race of the cops in a black neighborhood, the questionable level of training of the cops, the unfortunate situation of miscommunication with an immigrant unfamiliar with police procedure, or the possibility of foul play by the cops. Had the author avoided personalizing the underlying processes of thought-making and adopted more systemic psychoanalytical explanation of snap decision-making, he might have been able to present a more credible book. | ||
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