AI

This is a very interesting book as it is one of the few examples of sociological investigation into the military establishment in a latin american country. Camp investigates both the history of the Mexican military as well as the ongoing socializing practices of the Mexican military.

Mexico has come a long way. One of their shining successes (along with many others both economic and social) is the fact that they have maitained democratic rule, unbroken by military dictatorship for over 70 years. Some will argue that one party rule is not a real democracy but no one can argue that elections do take place, real debate (albeit within the PRI) does take place and, however indirect, their is representation of the people in government. However, we must rememeber that Mexico has maintained a democratic tradition while coping with explosive growth, market collapses and a mush internal dissension. To have kept the military at bay during all; of these events is a testament both to the democratic tradition in the country as well as ingenious use of power by politicians to keep the military in the barracks. How did they do it? One, the military is not seen as a prestigious occupation. Thus few memebers of the upper class seek careers in the military. By recruting alomost exlusively from the lower classes, the government cements their loyalty by career advancement and material security.

Secondly, the officer corps is frequently rotated in command and is kept from establishing ties to the local community or of becoming too esteemed by their troops. This prevents them from becoming "strongmen" with too much locally based autonomy. Third, they are not technocrats. The education of the military elite through the military academies is equal to a community college education. The receipt of advanced degrees in technical subjects is not actively encouraged.

Finally, the military is kept on a very short leash. The budget is always tight and arms purchases are minimal.

This is the insight provided by this very interesting and well written book.

This book is the first translation of any book on local Thai literature. The translation illustrates characteristic northeast Thai poetry. The best part of this translation is its detailed notes on literary, cultural, and historical references. The story is wonderful and uniquely Thai; its theme is universal and is still applicable to today's world problem of fighting for food, resources, and power. However, the translation may sound a bit stiff as the translator aims at poetic form called khlong san. I recommend this book for any southeast asian studies scholars.

This book was my first Tai Chi book, and so I still believe it has some merit. I believe it brings up many valid points which will be very useful for American readers, and the book serves as a good introduction. However, it is an imperfect method in description of the postures and pales in comparison to books by masters of many years. The book I would most suggest to anyone is Complete Tai-Chi by Master Alfred Huang.

This book is mis-leading. In describing Tai Chi movements the pictures disagree with the written text..."foot directly below the shoulder" and it isn't in the photograph. There are more such discrepancies. The analogies may be common to the writer but confusing to this reader..."sand pouring down your leg". There is a large and growing number of Tai Chi manuals. It's too bad publications like this sound so good and read so poorly.

This video is excellent for beginners in that the instructor is very clear about the movements and also uses two "students"from a rear view,in order to better ,still,understand the postures.
The only disappointment is that after the steps are individually learned,they are not shown together in a "dance"(for lack of a better word)that one can do along WITH the instructor,nor is the meaning of each movement given,which is a very important part of the Tai Chi.

This book is excellent for the beginner. The descriptions are very clear, and the photographs are easy to see. I had no problem understanding exactly what Ms. Hooton was talking about.

The author of this book knows nothing of taijiquan or chinese martial arts in general. Sophia Delza claims that taijiquan is NOT a fighting art. I've never heard anyone take that ridiculous position before, and I've read books by all of the leading taijiquan experts in the world. It's remarkable that Sophia Delza has learned nothing of taijiquan despite her years of training.

This is not a book for everyone and certainly not recommended for any beginning student of taijiquan. Sophia Delza learned under the famous Ma Yueh-liang in China and yet she seems to have gone off on her own in many ways. She was trained as a dancer and she interpreted taijiquan as an exercise for health. Many people practice it this way. She has also written some unique poetry about taijiquan, some of which is actually quite profound. Somehow she completely missed the boat on the fact that taijiquan is a true martial art--if one has learned the complete art and mastered it. Sadly, very few people including so-called "masters" can demonstrate this. I would probably only recommend this book to a Wu stylist who already has many years of experience and many other, better books on taijiquan. This is more of a curiosity to glance at every once in while, certainly not essential.

A must for anyone interested in Tai-Chi Chuan. It's for those who seek good health, peace of mind, and an aesthetic sense of movement. Sophia is a highly articulate spokeswoman. This brilliant book is filled with perceptive and thoroughly apt observations on Ta-Chi Chuan. Sophia Delza was a pioneer of Tai-Chi Chuan in the West and was able to connect the exercise with a philosophy for daily living. Her focus was on Tai-Chi Chuan as an exercise, and it seems she was on the right track as most practice it as such.

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a means of planning change by focusing on the positive rather than the negative in organizations (or in an individual's life for that matter). The Discovery phase (Step 1 in the process) relies in large measure on obtaining input from stakeholders and that in turn requires having the right questions to encourage people to open up positively about past experience, the present situation, and future hopes and dreams.

This "encyclopedia" lists sample questions, usually three per topic, on a variety of issues that are arranged alphabetically (like an encyclopedia). I have two problems. One is that the topics might have better been grouped, e.g., those dealing with Mission and Vision, those dealing with Marketing (customers, products, quality), and so on. The other problem I have is that the questions after a while all sound somewhat similar. This would have been a more useful book, I think, if more space had been devoted to how to frame and ask questions. That particular chapter is rather brief but helpful.

Unfortunately the last 70 pages (of a 150-page book) could have been almost entirely eliminated. A chapter gives a template for a sample interview. It then makes it concrete by simply adding the phrase "the Human Resources Department at XYZ company" in the "Company Name" space of the template. There then follow four copies of the same blank template for the reader's use. Why four copies I don't know, unless the reader doesn't have a computer or copy machine. Is one supposed to cut out each copy for use? One simple chapter explaining the template would have been fine. The "sample interview" was a total waste, as were the four copies of the same template presented earlier.

While, as a planning consultant I think AI is a good tool for information gathering and assessment, I don't think I would find myself reaching for this book on a regular or even seldom basis.

I think the book to be written has to do with gathering positive information from people but also dealing with negative information. People will share positive experiences and hopes and are too infrequently asked for them, but they will also want to "vent" with negative information and an AI researcher needs to know how to react to and absorb and use that as well. The danger is that AI becomes a reaction to negativity (we all love to complain) and so simply tips the scales in the other direction rather than achieving balance in gaining people's contributions for change.

Approach this book as a point of departure for writing your own unique questions and you will be delighted. I was !

Whenever possible, I always move towards engaging members of the community or team or organization with which I'm working in the co-writing of the appreciative protocol. Such a co-constructionist approach invariably leads to more vibrant language, terms and phrases that are part of the culture yet expand it - and generally a better set of questions than anything I produce on my own. (and of course such a process also builds internal capability!)

But sometimes my best efforts to enage the client system come to no avail and so I find myself sitting in my hotel room in front of my laptop, facing a blank page. It is at those moments that this book really shines for me. The questions listed here serve as a stimulant, a point of departure and as a surrogate for a co-creator(s).

If you understand Appreciative Inquiry, and if you have learned the skills of question development, then this book is a gem for those times when no one else is around. !

The AI techniques presented were overly simplistic, and the examples were somewhere near useless(especially when they were supposed to be geared towards agent intelligence). The VR section seemed to be missing. There was a simplistic 3D app in OpenGL, but no discussion on agents using upper(or lower for that matter) level AI to interact in a VR environ. Save your money.

The author wastes about half of the book with code dumps and oversized diagrams. He barely attempts to explain the theory, which is crammed into one chapter. The examples are useless and get little explanation.

This book takes about 2 hours to breeze through. The author spends about as much time on how to write OOP code as he does the AI concepts. If I wanted lessons in OOP, I'd buy a book about OOP. This book was supposed to be about AI! Also, he spends very little time explaining the theory of ai. Statements like "It does not make sense to use crossover operations to evolve the population for recurrent neural networks" are never qualified with an explanation. The reader never gets a sense of why he should be doing what the author describes. Rather than explain anything, the author just sites his other publications. Very poor. This is the real kicker: practically half of the book is dedicated to code dumps or space wasting Booch diagrams. The code dumps aren't even accompanied by anything meaningful, just things like, the constructor initializes the data. If I wanted to see the code in print, I'll use my own printer, thank you.

This book was not very informative, and wasn't much more
than an author's personal flag waving about the facts that
making packages are possible. The book comes without the cd,
no code dump's/listings, and much worse, doesn't really
compile most of the time. The content is confusing at best,
and I was quite frustrated that the author was audacious
enough to put the name Java on the cover. Not even good as
a reference-

Don't let the cover image fool you, the author should stick
to cover design, ...if that.

Take some advice, don't waste your money as i did.
Buy a better reference like:
Constructing Intelligent Agents Using Java: Pro. Developer's Guide, 2E;
ISBN: 047139601X

I have personally perused the Constructing... book in a local
bookstore and found it much more worth my time and on point.

This better help-

I think who ever wrote this book needs to wake up to reality, cause it is the worst book that has ever been writen.