In which American author gets all panicky and hot under the collar about the Japanese 'taking over' America. It makes a change from American films, books etc. maligning the British. I do think there is also a strange need to assign league tables, as it were. Something cannot just be what it is. Everything has to be 'the best' or 'the worst'. When the England football side reaches fourth place in the World Cup, the press, instead of congratulating them for getting that far, and playing good footie right up until the end, hounds them for 'failure'. It's aut caesar, aut nihil taken to a diseased extreme. This attitude needs to be given a good shaking and told there is a large number of positions, not just first and last. And besides, the Crichton is xenophobic and not a little sexist too.