Chow Books

For the life of me I can't understand how Chow, the most feared gunman and standover man of his era(i.e. the 1930's, 40's, 50's), managed to live when all his ilk were shot or killed long before. It is not natural for a man who lives the life of many men, and many bad men at that, to live to this grand age.
I must warn the prospective reader that each chapter is but a juxtaposed vignette, often without context and therefore often without a necessary dreaded sense of wrongdoing and the paying for that wrongdoing. But that is probably why one can enjoy the book so much because he seems most often to escape the arms of the law and other crims. We find ourselves rooting for a very likeable rogue when perhaps we shouldn't. He does have a heart and a real sense of honour and mateship dspite his tainted blood.
I recommend reading the book through fully, then at the end briefly reflect on each story or chapter again but this time with the appendix containing his criminal record at the back tagged for constant reference. One sees he truly does pay for what he does. Perhaps not enough, but a substantial part of his life was spent in prison.
I rate this so highly because Chows captivating life and take on life adds colour to the tapestry that is the true and balanced history of Sydney i.e inclusive of it's dark side. If you read this book and are fascinated by Sydney's darker side, you will also enjoy such books as the Prince and the Premier by the same author and Leviathan: The unauthorised biography of Sydney by John Birmingham. Happy reading!

While the book is far from edifying reading my interest was 2 fold. The man he shot and got life for was my grandmother's cousin and I reconciled Chow with the catholic church in his last days[NB in the book, Chow said he would have nothing to do with religion. In my rounds of the parish of Lidcombe NSW in 1992 in australia I crossed paths with Chow in the main street and suggested that he return to the faith. Subsequently I became a weekly visitor of his bringing him the consolation of the sacraments and last rites.
Ironically I was brought up in the area and streets where Chow roamed in his crim days viz Darlinghurst and Surrey Hills[did our paths cross then?? HE assured me in those days crims never touched kids. In any case I recall freely and happily wandering the streets at 7 years old with the freedom of the children of God! Though i do recall seeing a lot of police and paddy wagons!!
It was all an extraordinary action of God's grace working on the soul of this most feared crim!!!!!
At 62 I am recovering from a stroke[half paralysed] in a nursing home in sydney[happy in the knowledge i have done some good in my ministry].

I own several books on clinical trials and this one is my favorite. It is biblical in its treatment of the topic and always seems to contain what my other books don't.

There are a few strengths that are particularly worth pointing out:
1) Makes many references to regulatory guidelines.
2) Excellent coverage of the various trial designs.
3) Good sample size chapter.
4) Several chapters on how to practically implement a trial.

Other options include:
-Piantodosi (Clinical Trials: methodologic perspective): my second favorite, not as comprehensive as Chow and Liu
-Freidman and DeMets (Fundamentals of Clinical Trials): a bit too superficial but very well written
-Pocock (Clinical trials: practical approach): a bit dated and superficial

I selected this text for a new doctoral level course on clinical trials based mostly on the topics covered. When we started using it, I found many errors in logical thinking. So far, one of the worst is a view that randomization satisfies some statistical assumption. It does not. Its function is to make groups similar, on the average. It is not in any way a substitute for random sampling. Separating these two random processes is basic to understanding clinical trials. I am embarrassed that I had my students purchase this book.

As with many conference volumes, the quality of papers collected in this book varies. Some (Frank Flatters on Thailand, for example) are informative, some less so. None of the papers considers the financial crisis as a regional or systemic crisis -- instead the focus is on country by country analyses. Oddly enough, none of the papers on Taiwan deal with its decision in the fall of 1997 to devalue its currency, the New Taiwan dollar, which arguably intensified the crisis, at least with respect to Hong Kong and South Korea. One can find some interesting material in these essays, but one will have to look elsewhere for an in depth analysis of the Asian financial crisis, even with respect to Taiwan.

This book, and the conference organised by the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research on which it is based, asks a question which is fundamental to Asia's future: how did Taiwan ride out the 1997 financial storm when Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia were almost capsized by the wave?
Several essays in the book note that small and mid-sized firms make up nine-tenths of Taiwan's economy, with equity financing being the norm rather than debt financing. This meant that there was far less opportunity for speculative funds to sweep into and out of the economy, and also meant that the business sector was much more stable than in some of Taiwan's neighbours.
The capital sector was also strong, with a minimum of exchange rate controls and most financial institutions in private rather than government hands. When the crash came, non-performing loans accounted for less than five per cent of credits, compared to 16 per cent in Malaysia and 19 per cent in Thailand. Taiwan's financial institutions had also been markedly more successful at mobilising private capital and channelling it into productive investments than its neighbours.
At the macroeconomic level, Taiwan's performance had been solid, with growth at over five per cent and a current account surplus of about 4.5 per cent of GDP. Not spectacular, but the point is that Taiwan had been turning in good results for a substantial period, rather than looking like an overheated economy heading for a fall.
In spite of Taiwan's sturdy foundations, the meltdown still had a punch. There was a 15 per cent currency depreciation in 1997-98 and a steep drop in the stock market. But this did not translate into an economic free-fall, mainly due to decisive action by the Central Bank. It stabilised the exchange rate with sales of foreign reserves and then, crucially, let the domestic currency float. In 1999, the Central Bank buttressed its success by promoting growth with low interest rates and new investments. Credibility was a key asset, with the Central Bank being widely seen as prudent and competent, run by technocrats rather than political cronies.
In some ways, the retreat of government may have gone a little too far: several contributors to the book note that Taiwan might have fared even better if the Central Bank had had a wider range of monetary instruments to use. But the bottom line for Taiwan remains: a solid base and a swift response meant that the '97 storm was mostly distant thunder.

Weathering the Storm sets its points with admirable clarity, but there are subjects which are not covered. The underlying issues of macroeconomic/currency policy are hardly touched, and there are comparisons (such as with South Korea) on which there is insufficient depth. Perhaps these issues were discussed in the conference, but they are not in the book.

This small book by Rey Chow makes a bold attempt to apply Heidegger's notion of the "age of world picture" to the post-1945 Asia Pacific and questions the still pervasive mode of compartmentalized disciplinarity in East Asian Studies, Minority Studies, etc, in order to elucidate for us a new notion of comparative literature. While such a depiction of her project brings to mind the path already taken by Spivak in the Death of Discipline, her promise to tackle "comp lit" through Asia Pacific, the Atomic Age, and the institutionalization of theory and Asian Studies in the US are both refreshing and provocative.

However, my initial excitement was soon replaced by some disappointment and more question marks. The first chapter that "applies" Heidegger to Asia Pacific and East Asian Studies remains precisely a mere application of the famous essay by Heidegger and does not add much to what the German philosopher has already written. Heidegger in "the Age of World Picture" critiques the productionist metaphysics that leads to an endless creation of "researches" and the production & destruction at once of "world" as such. Therefore, when Chow says Asia Pacific was reduced into a target of both academic research (East Asian Studies in the US) and atomic bombing, she is largely merely retracing the thesis put forth by Heidegger approximately 50 years ago. To apply and retrace important theoretical point made by others is fine. But Rey Chow has a constant tendency to sound as if she is always "advancing" and "going beyond" the points made by others (e.g., "Supplementing Heidegger, we may say that in the age of bombing, the world has also been transformed into ... a target" (31).) But less obvious and perhaps more productive is Heidegger's mysterious claim about "technology's saving power" that makes us see the reverse side of the age of world picture, but she does not at all refer to or think about the possibility of this line of inquiry...

To go through the rest of the book more quickly, the second chapter is a partial vindication of "referentiality" or the persistence of referential meaning in literature and cultural studies. So Chow sets out to critique what she calls European "post-structural theorists." Again, that kind of project is fine. However, if someone wants to offer a credible critique of "post-structuralist theorists" still current in the US academy, one should at least provide a detailed close reading and substantial critique of people like Derrida, Deleuze, Lyotard, Levinas, de Man, Blanchot, Nancy, etc. However, what Rey Chow gives us is a very brief reading of Roland Barthes'_Mythologies_ and Barthes' perhaps naive insistence of a rural woodcutter as an exmaple of someone outside the hegemonice system...For someone as acute and well-read as Rey Chow to set up this kind of straw-person argument is rather disappointing. Can one Barthes book exemplify poststructuralist tendency to reify, essentialize, and thus implicitly denigrate the cultural Other (in the guise of celebrating such otherness)? Perhaps not. Does Chow provide a contrived argument in order to artificially make the entire post-structuralist theory eurocentric? Well, others can decide for themselves.

The last chapter retains the problem of the second chapter. That is, Chow now links what she sees as post-structuralist tendency to "incarcerate" the non-Western other and fetishize "interruptive aesthetics" to Johannes Fabian's argument that ethnography usually sustains itself by denying the "coevalness" between the ethnographer and the so-called native. Even if this argument is valid, I do not see any proof of this in the book.

After a seemingly biting "critique" of post-sturcturalism, Chow's formulation of a new comparative literature works with gestures toward theorists such as Sam Weber and Harutoonian using very Derridean notions of "ghosts," "revenat," and the disjunctive "and." In a very very reductive sense, this book starts with Heidegger and ends with Derrida, with its Chapter 2 vigilantly attacking "poststructuralist theory" as ultimately inward and euro-centric.Why?

Does Chow want to say that "post-structuralist" theory per se is apolotical ultimately but certain diaspotic appropriation of it can still be politically and ethically powerful? If so, she should say so. Overall, the lack of close reading of theorists she criticizes, Chow's own very troubled and often contracitory relationship with "theory," and her constant tendency to sound like she is going beyong others whose points she seems to repeat, make this a very troubled book. This is not to say that the problems it raises are unimportant. But one whould not too quickly disavow one's theoretical background merely because it's "passe" in the US or because its political capacity was attenuated in the literature departments in the US. Perhaps the theoretical legacy Chow incorporates in this book should be acknowledged more generously, productively, and, therefore, more critically in a fair manner.

A serviceable play with an inconsistent through line of audience narration that never really pays off. The lead character (Jenny) is interesting and the conceit that she can build a robot double of herself is allowable. The trouble arises with her relationships with other characters, most notably her mother -- a frustrating caricature of the working power mother a la Sigourney Weaver in Working Girl. The issues with dialogue and character would probably be smoothed over tremendously on stage by good actors and direction, but on the page it isn't as funny as it should be, and not moving at all. Still, some fresh ideas and an interesting topic: What are the longer term implications of the American adoption of thousands of unwanted Chinese baby girls?

This series of DVD's are rapid pace and hard to follow. They are presented as if you don't need them to operate the software. I have been greatly disappointed with the "Lynda Series of DVD's and this one as well. I have tried 3 and this one is no exception.

This book has very interesting points, owever lacks the importance of why this movement began in the first case. It has historical facts and roles it had in China, but lacks of how it ties in with Communism, one of the most important events that lead to communism in China

This book does not deliver what it promises. Quite dull with ordinary language and no real helpful hints.

I went to the bookstore and read the whole book in 5 minutes. One sentence per page, with the facing page having a cartoon picture. It only offers basic ideas, ones which I'm sure you already have. For those of us who are quiet, nice girls, it gives no dirty scripting on what to actually say. Perhaps renting some x movies and taking notes would be a better idea... do they talk in those?

What I like about this book is that it's witty and sexy, dirty enough to get it done but a nice step above garden variety porn. Some great ideas and I love that it's about what works for you - and making you comfortable with talking about it - versus just some scripted trash. Nice illos too!

This was just the sassy ticket to bring a bit of zest to the bedroom and beyond. Stanton starts off slow, taking newbies by the hand and leading them into the promised land of pillow talk. I thought it gave great advice for a good girl looking to be so bad it's good. And the book itself is a cute as a button, with a velvet cover and metallic illustrations. It makes a great gift book and it's something that you can return to again and again for a bit of saucy inspiration.

I did not finish reading the book. However, It started out so well. I'd finish it if I had the time. I believe what it says is true. We just do not pay much attention to what we should do or say about dirty talk. It shows you some simple ways and methods to practice with yourself before actually turning into a "dirty talker." It gives some examples of movies to watch and phrases to read out loud. Also some stories or novels. It tries to make you comfortable in using such "dirty" words. Getting used to your own voice saying them. Reading through it is just like reading through a diary. The cover book is red made with fabric and golden text.

Well worth getting for locals and visitors alike spending time on the Maine coast.

I have lived in and have travelled to Maine for over 40 years and have a pretty good idea of both the local restaurant scene and the new commers. However, in a travel format I think the book should have focused more on the wonderful Seafood, Lobster Pounds and Clam shacks dotting the Maine coast. Yes they have some but give too much space to new wave cooking. If you are going to visit Maine I think you want the flavors of Maine, not spaqgheti alla carbonara.
This book missed the mark and excluded several of Main's best well known Lobster Pounds and Clam Shacks.

The idea of such a guide is great...but the result is lousy not to say something worse. This is supposed to be a food guide but you have no ratings! in addition you have no signs enabling you to know at first sight if a place mentionned is a luxury restaurant, a casual lobster place or a family hamburger cafe.
In addition to the negative side, no mention of wine list.
Out of the tens and tens of restaurant guides I have bought, this one is certainly the worst.

Engineering students may have a hard time to understand this book.

This book looks and IS good when it comes down to going through complicated optical gain calculations. However, I feel the book expects reader to know important and advanced fundamentals of lasers which it does not go through in the book and may prove disadvantage to both advanced and beginner researchers interested in semiconductor lasers. The book includes many complex equations but they are, in my opinion, not explicitly explained in the text. In addition, what I found most disappointing about the book is that there were no examples to demonstrate gain calculations on any material (like GaAs-AlGaAs etc), which would really help in modeling a quantum well structure.