Industrial Books

My wife enjoyed the book very much, very enlightening and educational, well done and presented. Worth the cost and more!

This book is a box collectors dream come true. Excellent detailed photos combined with informational prose.I am glad I purchased it.

Good information on the periods, materials and types of antique boxes most frequently collected. Photography excellent and item pricing accurate. I love this book and it's helped me enormously.

One does not have to be an expert to love this book. It is a treasure trove of information on all kinds of English boxes from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. Packed with photographs and intelligent text, it is simply the best, most informative, most comprehensive book on the subject. It's easy to tell the writers are not only experts with vast experience but lovers of these boxes too.
I'm particularly interested in writing boxes, and I could wish for more chapters on these, but that is purely out of a sense of greed. The whole book is fascinating, whether one is browsing or studying. Thanks.

Look I stipulate that this is most likely the best book currently on tea caddies and box's and such, but these reviews are so gushing. This book is not prefect, the font is poor and it is overpriced at 90.00 U.S. I think it is well worth 50.00 U.S., but for 90.00 I expect more pages and better quality. I was expecting the Holy Grail when I ordered this book, the reviews where hailing this as the burning bush; what I got was a good book, a very good book on tea caddies and box's, but not the end all be all. If you love tea caddies and such you will immediately enjoy this book, but the sticker shock may take a bit longer to get over.

After reading the The Best That Money Can't Buy, I had to meet Jacque and Roxanne. Off to Venus I went! Without a doubt this is one of the most important books that any individual can read. Lets just hope that your mind is not in a straightjacket.

Global peace is so very important as a goal we must leave no stone unturned in exploring the possibilities of making it real. Too many of us are trapped in the box of complacency and denial. Any American citizen should have enough common sense to realize that business as usual is not working, never has worked and never will work to develop world peace. Any Economic paradigm built upon a class system is inherently flawed. Capitalism, deceptive though it may be, is built upon a class structure. Just ask the indigenous native, the Hispanics, or descendents of the slaves in The USA.

No human being is a second class citizen whether they are a citizen of a nation or the world. No human being will ever accept second class citizenship status. How can any rational human being in this day and time not understand this?

The use of monetary economics is, practically, as old as human civilization and although peace has endured as the most common dream of humanity it has never been actually attained. A popular definition of 'insanity' is doing the same things over and over expecting different results. Capitalism is the epitome of monetary economics. Communism, socialism, Fascism all use money to regulate resource distribution and are but variations of monetary economics. Monetary Economics is manmade - Not God given - and it is flawed like any other creation of mankind!

Capitalism is most compatible with a Plutocracy (a wealthy minority controls government) and it is rational because the wealthy are the most adept at monetary policy and practice. We know it is a ruthless affair. In a system that thrives upon competition, and Capitalistic competition is dog-eat-dog at best, the winners rule. A Plutocracy just inevitably emerges within such systems. A plutocracy is not what the citizens of the United States admit to desire. Such systems divide the general population, creates strife and gross inequities. Deceit, fear and violence are required to maintain order is such societies. At some point in all of our lives we have probably wondered, "There must be a better way to live1". There is . . . but we must escape the trappings of thinking within the box constructed and maintained for us by the gatekeepers of our Economic establishment and the media. "The Best That Money Can't Buy", takes us outside the box and revives our dreams of world peace with a virtual guide to world peace that was relatively impossible much of the twentieth century.

Democracy demands an economic system of different stripes. Democracy cannot thrive in a Capitalistic society. It is just incompatible. What is wrong with our systemic methodology for determining who gets how much of what and what is our best alternative for a systemic adjustment that makes everyone a winner and allows democracy to thrive? . . .

Jacque Fresco's work breaks it all down and lays out a virtual blueprint for the kind of society we dream about the most. Don't give up on your dreams of peace. Dreams are what makes our world whatever it is and whatever it is to become. If we can imagine it - we can create it! Believe that and prepare to embrace a new strategy for peace, the end of needless human suffering and an abundant world with no losers.

Remember what they said about: the Airplane, electricity, space travel, and breaking the sound barrier? Ignore the nay-sayers and make peace real.

C. Dickerson

The Best That Money Can't Buy - Beyond Politics, War, and Poverty. In the context of these troubled times, the title itself seems the epitome of Utopian thinking. Within these pages, however, are not the meanderings of well-intentioned dreamers, but straight-forward analyses of, and solutions to, many of the troubles that continue to plague the world, in spite of - and often, under the present scarcity-oriented distribution system of advantage, because of - the vast technological achievements of the modern age.

Even the term Utopian rankles Fresco, who sees stagnation in the notion of a civilization that feels it has "arrived" at some sort of ultimate state of being. Rather, The Best That Money Can't Buy takes Utopia beyond an unattainable (and undesirable) dead end to an exciting, dynamic, and perpetual quest not for perfection, but for the next step in social development, pulsing with all the vitality of the unquenchable human spirit. The Best That Money Can't Buy takes all the most admirable, humane hopes and aspirations of humankind, dovetails them with known and developing technologies, and comes up with a comprehensive design for the future that surpasses any that have been offered thus far. Fresco's work doesn't just break new ground; he fuses it into glass viaducts to provide fresh water to the whole world.

Fresco's unique, streetwise background in behavioral science eminently qualifies him to identify the roles of culture and physical environment as shapers of much of humanity's past and present situation - and the surest footing for establishing a new direction for civilization, based on manageable data and enhanced communication, rather than the vagaries of philosophical remnants of an age of ignorance, scarcity, and superstition.

Fresco even takes into account the tendency of some humans to establish a pecking order of advantage by, for the most part, taking them out of the loop when it comes to making decisions based on their inevitable prejudices, psychological limitations, and an inherent lack of a sufficient knowledge base to render objective decisions that favor all members of society equally. Instead, Fresco leaves the arrival at (not "making" of) decisions to computers. An intimidating prospect to some, no doubt, until one considers the major roles computers play in things like landing jetliners safely or transporting one's messages across thousands of mile.

Particularly notable is Fresco's prescription for a new incentive system based on personal achievement and satisfaction, rather than on the shallow, socially divisive, and ultimately environmentally disastrous value system based on a ceaseless quest for exclusive access to ever more consumptive material possessions. The environmental impact (or lack of) under Fresco's proposed "resource-based economy" is profound, as are the social benefits. Producing the highest quality, most durable goods for common use by all not only guarantees the most efficient allocation of natural resources and energy, but has the potential to eliminate the vast majority of social ills born of the inequities of distribution so highly touted by champions of the present monetary system as one of its chief motivators of "incentive

A resource-based economy, as envisioned by Fresco, transcends the need for property and proprietary "rights" that present monumental roadblocks to cooperative endeavor. One need only consider the millions lost to the AIDS epidemic due to the refusal of pharmaceutical companies to allow the affected nations to develop their own, more affordable treatments; or the 13,000 who die each day from water-related diseases while private industry privatizes access to fresh water, to realize the inherent failures of the present property-oriented system to meet the basic needs of the human family

Any new line of thinking is bound to find its detractors in those who have found a measure of advantage in the current social arrangement, or even those who haven't, but remain culture-bound due to societal pressures and influences - especially those who hold onto the archaic notion that money is a viable instrument for rewarding contributive effort and distributing goods and services on the basis of whomever "deserves" them. Fresco's proposals are certain to raise the eyebrows, if not the hackles, of anyone who holds onto the notion of the "dignity" of work - a dignity which business, above all other spheres of human activity, has always been willing to forego in the name of faster production and expanded sales. Indeed, much of the psychological stress we see today is the aftershock of seeing one's usefulness rendered impotent by advancing technology.

The net effect of the Machine Age has been to elevate humans beyond the drudgery of arduous, dangerous work. Fresco simply extends this trend to the next level. While Fresco's work may appear threatening in its tendency to strip the human animal of its functionality, the trend is not of his making - but the proposals to manage technological change for maximum social benefit with minimal environmental damage are.

Good fences don't make good neighbors. They make selfish and uncooperative ones that in this age, where even one's thoughts are subject to copyright, can be a detriment to the information sharing essential to human betterment and progress. Fresco's thinking is not only out of the box; it's not even in the same warehouse. He cuts through the dilatory and inhibitive system of proprietary "rights" and leads the reader into an oft-mooted, but hitherto unrealized, distribution system in which all are not simply offered a chance for a leg up at someone else's expense, but afforded an equal footing simply because it's there for everyone.

The Best That Money Can't Buy is not for the faint at heart - but then, neither are the inevitable challenges of an increasingly complex world. Humankind can simply sit idly by and let a handful of elitists direct technology for their exclusive benefit, or they can themselves be the pioneers of a culture in which no one, and everyone, is elite. Perhaps bold works like this will dissipate some of the fog of scarcity thinking and embolden, and empower, more people to reach for that next level of understanding.

The "Left Behind" theology to the contrary, Jacque Fresco writes that we can't depend on "the divine intervention of mythical characters in white robes who descend from the clouds" to solve our problems because they are "illusions." It doesn't follow, however, that the kind of systematic social engineering Fresco advocates will work, either, because it's not taking into account some relevant facts of reality.

One, Fresco assumes that humans are born as the blank slates assumed by radical behaviorist ideology, instead of having neurological predispositions for all sorts of nonrational, reproductively-driven behaviors as shown by the rapidly growing field of evolutionary psychology. We have "politics, poverty, & war" partly because there is a hard-wired human nature that social engineering as such can't change. Supplying people's physical needs through a conjectural "resource-based economy" won't necessarily make them more sociable; they're likely just to devote more time towards noneconomic status-seeking as they go about forming dominance-submission hierarchies to show off their relative reproductive fitness, and violence can't be ruled out as a possible strategy. The history of well-provisioned aristocracies suggests that growing up in a state of affluence & leisure doesn't always bring out the best in people.

Two, in the real world property rights have demonstrated their value as a social institution for getting people to manage their resources and tools properly, giving them incentives to work hard, defer gratification, plan for the future, etc. Declaring the world's resources a "common heritage" is a guarantee for disaster, even though it sounds good according to socialistic ethical theories that aren't based on real human behavior. Fresco's plan is just a nonstarter in the sort of world we live in.

Three, Fresco doesn't seem to appreciate that in the money system we have now in the U.S., access to property ownership is available to everyone. A proper way to view one's relationship with the American economy is to find ways to get the balance of payments going in your favor. If you pay Federal income taxes, buy bonds and Treasury bills so the government has to pay you interest in return. If you buy a lot of things from a profitable, publicly traded company (current scandals aside), buy stock in the company so that it pays you dividends while the stock appreciates in value. You don't really benefit from our system as a consumer and a debtor, but as an owner of equity and a creditor, and you can leverage yourself into that position through some planning and self-discipline.

Perhaps because of his advanced age, Fresco seems not to have upgraded his worldview all that much since the late 1960's, when he and Kenneth Keyes published _Looking Forward_. Back then his vision of the 21st Century presented many futuristic ideas that were progressive in the context of its time, but his current proposals have a kind of "retro future" feel to them. Someone well read in the history of borderline sciences can detect in Fresco's book ideas derived from General Semantics, Technocracy, Inc., Buckminster Fuller's "design science," radical behaviorism, proposals for a cybernated "leisure society" and other early and mid 20th Century intellectual fads that never got very far because they couldn't make the case for their validity, necessity and real-world effectiveness. The fact that we've avoided disaster with the money system despite Fresco's warnings decades ago suggests that his proposal for social reconstruction is a solution for some other planet's problems.

The history of ideological utopianism the 20th Century shows that we have to be extraordinarily careful before we conduct another social experiment where we jettison a system that works tolerably well in favor of one that merely sounds good. While Fresco's vision of life in the latter 21st Century does address some of my concerns, in general the frontier of advanced thinking about the future seems to have passed on to where the Extropians and Transhumanists are doing their thing these days.

The Best That Money Can't Buy: Beyond Politics, Poverty, & War by futurist and inventor Jacque Fresco is a seminal, ground breaking vision of a grander, more humane future borne of the advantages of science and technology as well as human concern for the well-being of other people and the planet. Individual chapters address how to help basic human nature evolve beyond enlightened self-interest for a better tomorrow in this wondrous, compelling, superbly illustrated, hope-filled, highly recommended treatise.

Based on conclusive research, the authors teach you how to apply the keys they discovered for radical "blockbuster" products. The research component extended over a decade. Some of the things they found reinforce what one would expect, other finds show assumptions to be inaccurate. For example, having a specific "due date" pushed teams members to find a way to get things done. Positive interpersonal relations among team members, however, was not found to be that significant.

Lynn and Reilly do not advocate "management by walking around." Their research indicates that senior executives who are passionately involved in the day-to-day decisions of bringing a new product to market get the job done, not those who have a passive, casual interest in the team's efforts. Therefore, they say it involves a lot more than just popping in occasionally to see how things are going.

Particularly useful is the discussion they have on creating products so radical that customers don't even know they want them because nothing comparable exists. In such cases, they describe how to be your own customer in bringing such products into being. They cite a couple of examples of people who did so, and because very wealthy.

Blockbusters brings home the key elements of bringing a true winner to the market. You will not be surprised at the elements they bring to your attention, but will be pleasantly reminded of the fundamental points that you often forget. Excellent business analogies make the reading not only informative and educational, but also enjoyable. Knowing the problems that some of these larger companies faced and overcome helps put other business problems into perspective. I have already implemented their Dirty Dozen questions into the team plan and I am building the War Room as we speak. I think they have created their own blockbuster and I look forward to further work from these authors

Every year companies spend spend hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars guessing what it takes to create just one hugely successful product. A large portion of that money could be saved if new product development teams would read Blockbusters and take its message to heart. The real world examples evaluated by Lynn and Reilly include high and low tech "blockbuster" products created by well-funded corporations and a struggling garage start-up. The authors teach five keys to success that are shared by all. Well worth buying and reading thoroughly.

Blockbusters is one of those rare business books that once you start reading, you just can't stop. I read this book in maybe 2 sittings, because each chapter created a strong curiosity to learn quickly, "what is the next key step." I couldn't wait to finish so I could go into my company and begin implementing some of these steps.

Like most business books, Blockbuster has theory, but backed by solid data and many years of research; however, unlike other business books, it written in a very practical manner, particularly for the working business profressional.

The authors, Drs. Lynn and Reilly, seem to have a very good understanding of what goes on inside companies when teams work together to design and launch new products. In my opinion, they were able to successfully identify the key areas that all business leaders must be aware of if they are to be successful in product launches. The case histories of real product successes, both industrial and consumer, showed me the power of having a solid product development process.

I highly recommend Blockbusters to senior management or anyone that is involved in the new product development process, whether the products are consumer, industrial, or services.

It is difficult to find a well-written book that addresses the real-world application of New Product Development and "blockbusters" - Drs. Lynn and Reilly solved this problem!

Whilst their work is based on in-depth surveys and an extensive analysis, they convey the success factors to practitioners in an easy-to-read and understandable format. "Bottom-line" information is found here.

My MBA students (New York) are intolerant of all theory and no practical application - they love this book!

In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth, Williamson County, Illinois became a byword for lawlessness. The county first came to nationwide attention in the 1870s, when a bloody feud, comparable to the worst that the mountains of Kentucky and Tennessee had to offer, wracked the area. Then in the 1920s, the town was beset by union and Ku Klux Klan violence to a shocking degree. Indeed, the rest of the country, and even the rest of the world was appalled at the violence, and the townspeople who condoned it.

This is a wonderfully interesting book. The author does an excellent job of bringing bloody Williamson to life, and showing it in all its lack of glory. This tale of union murderers and KKK hoodlums (often the same people) is sure to shock you, and make you very glad that you didn't live then and there!

I highly recommend this book!

I was amazed when reading the review by Alan Mills. How could someone get the most basic facts presented in the book so wrong? It's mind-boggling! He claims that the mine owner hired thugs who killed the miners when, in fact, the mine owner hired guards and non-union miners to work the mines and the union miners killed them. And the "thugs" did not hang around because they were dead! Also, Williamson is a county not a town. If you are a history buff, you will enjoy this book but Alan Mills' review has absolutely nothing to do with the book. Another reviewer guessed that Alan had just read the back cover but he couldn't have even done that based on his "review."

This is a true gem, which depicts the violent history of a rural southern county in Illinois. The author tells of organized labor, bootleggers, gangs and the KKK of the 1920s in Williamson County, Illinois. Angle writes in any easy format for most readers and his book is well indexed. I would highly recommend this book to all readers!

Mike Koch, author of "The Kimes Gang."

While working near Marion, Illinois (Williamson County) in the winter of 2002 and spring of 2003 I was (at first) completely unaware of the history of the area. Finding that I was a history lover, a co-worker, native to the area, told me about "the troubles" and recommended this book. I quickly decided that Bloody Williamson was one of the better books I had ever read concerning this violent era in American history. While reading the book, I rode over many of the roads and visited as many of the old sites as I could find.

Williamsburg County had an unbelievable amount of violence, in both variety and magnitude, in such a short period of time. In less than fifty years this one county had labor wars, Ku Klux Klan wars, gang wars, and one of the worst feuds in American history. Paul Angle is a good writer, but that is only an added benefit. Reading the media accounts of these events would be fascinating enough. Anyone interested in a case study of a dysfunctional community should read this book.

I agree with everyone else, if you are a grad student or new researcher you need to buy and read this book. BUT BEWARE: This book refers to turbo pumps as a new innovation, and ignores magnetic charged particle optics. Discussions of topics are fairly through but lack the depth of schematics, however many of the references are now considered seminal letters on their topics. The references alone will save you a lot of time.

The physics covered is accurate and usable, and the references, clear presentations of topics, and lists of suppliers make this book essential for any serious experimental scientist to be.

Buy it! :)

This book is an invaluable reference source for anyone whose work requires them to become involved in unfamiliar (physical science related) technologies. Though it would certainly be useful to laboratory researchers, it is equally valuable for the scientist or engineer who needs to apply these disciplines. As a physicist involved in design of commercial instrumentation, I have often had to become involved in various disciplines which were outside of my area of formal training and this book has commonly been my point of entry into unfamiliar terrain. This isn't just a "how to do it" book, but also provides a solid grounding in the basic theory. Over the years I have used this book as a primer/refresher for: (a) vacuum technology; (b) light optics; (c) charged-particle optics; and (d) mechanical drawing. In each case, this book provided me with the fundamental concepts, equations, and techniques to become productive, often without access to any other source of expertise. Though I do, of course, employ other sources as my knowledge advances, I still find myself regularly referring back to this book.

I know of no other reference that manages to pack so much useful information into so few pages. And yet, it remains easy and enjoyable to read. Part of this may be due to the abundant drawings which have a certain charm of their own -- echoing the style of the famous C.S. Stong illustrations in the "Amateur Scientist" section of Scientific American.

This book is so good that I own two copies: one for my office at work and the second for reference at home.

Have never seen a book which was able to pack so much practical information into so few pages, and able to explain complex concepts so simply.

If you have to work with any type of laboratory equipment you would be insane to NOT have this book on your shelf.

I would like to cast a somewhat dissenting view of this book. It is certainly a good place to start for information on various projects but comes up short on construction techniques. Perhaps an older source, Procedures in Experimental Physics (Lindsay Pubs), is better. Of course, it was written in 1938, so materials cited might be out of date, but the construction techniques aren't bad. I recently decided to build a good sized water tank (40" by 6" by 3") of acrylic and found nothing about construction tips. I was thinking of building something that probably required casting, and found a paltry two pages on the subject.

It would be good to see it updated every 5 years or so. I see the pub date is 1991. Things have changed a bit. It has a very good list of references, but with the advent of the web, it would be good to see some the reference material cite the web.

This is a _great_ book! I buy a copy of this for every student who starts work for me--which I consider to be a fine investment. Practical, hands-on information is given on a huge variety of skills needed by those working in Physics labs. From glass blowing to vacuum systems, to instruction on attaching BNC connectors, it's all in here.

Like a ship's captain, a CEO is only as good as the latest weather report. If a chief executive unknowingly steers his or her ship into the path of a hurricane, that ship's in trouble, no matter how skillful a seaman that captain may be. And unfortunately for CEOs, hurricanes - in the form of disruptive changes that remake markets overnight - have become almost an everyday danger. Authors W. Warner Burke, William Trahant and Richard Koonce argue that the most critical function of a corporate leader today is to monitor and respond to these rapid shifts in the external marketplace, or business climate. To illustrate this point, they offer insightful profiles of leaders who successfully guided their companies through the storms of organizational change initiatives. These profiles are especially effective in giving the reader both a sense of the personalities of these dynamic executives and a practical breakdown of the methodologies and strategies that they employed. We [...] strongly recommend this book to senior executives, would-be change agents and anyone curious about how to navigate the turbulent environment of 21st-century business.

This book is a must-read for anyone involved with organizational change -- whether you are managing the change or experiencing it from the "front lines." These fascinating Q & A's gave me real insight into the process. I recommend Business Climate Shifts to any forward-thinking person in the corporate world today.

Just ordered "Business Climate Shift" at the recommendation of a friend. I am a consultant who works with corporations on training and e-learning strategies that support implementation of knowledge and skill development in rapidly changing market places. My work continually has me working with senior managers on business change issues. I am always looking for new perspectives on organizational change. What is interesting about the book is the interview format. A very interesting way to explore the subject. The interview style gives you a chance to draw your own conclusions and you get a personal feel for the context senior managers face as they address organizational change issues. I have found the interviews very engaging and the authors do a nice job of summarizing the key organizational change issues for each interview. Many organizational change books present models and theory. This one also gives you a view of the human and personal issues associated with leading major change initiatives. .

After reading BUSINESS CLIMATE SHIFTS it was clear to me that this book was as much about leadership as about change. As a thirty year middle manager who has participated in both the planning and implementation of change, I was extremely pleased to read throughout the book that, although the companies were focusing on the customer, they all recognized the importance of the employees. The one common denominator throughout the book was that how management treats the employees is how the employees treat the customers. Although Colin Marshall at British Airways and Roger O. Goldman of National Westminster Bancorp. have distinctively different styles, they both recognized the importance of employees in the change process and demonstrated that leadership is key to effective and efficient change.

Starting my career in government late in life, I have noticed a reluctancy of federal executives to get the rank and file involved in major change initiatives. I suggest that any government manager or executive contemplating change read BUSINESS CLIMATE SHIFTS. The lessons learned from those who have been there, both government and industry, are invaluable and provide a framework for developing issues and questions that need to be addressed before any major shifts or changes in organizational culture.

As a college president, I read a lot of books about leadership and about institutional change. I found "Business Climate Shifts" to be extremely enjoyable to read, helpful, and relevant to a CEO of a not-for-profit. Although the idea of fast change seems like an oxymoron when connected to higher education, this book gives a framework in which higher education and other not-for-profits can operate. The helpful use of the living organism as a metaphor feels comfortable for higher education as does the book's use of scenarios -- something we are very comfortable with but often fail to use. In fact, the use of a metaphorical approach throughout fits with current thinking on the sources of visionary capability in leaders. The Organizational Diagnostic Checklist is worth the price of the book; it allows an organization to begin quickly the process of assessment and can be used throughout an organization. Educational institutions are very familiar with assessment, and this book fits directly into that familiar territory while giving it a business twist. The use of informal case studies and interviews makes the book easily readable and quite interesting. The chapter conclusions help focus the reader's attention on what has been read and demonstrate what has been learned from the case study. I found myself going back to them as a kind of review when I had finished the book. Asking people who have been successful to describe their own skills and approaches adds strong credibility and validity to the book. I feel certain this aspect of the book will make it useful as an educational tool for developing future leaders.

This is a valuable book for beginners and intermediates. Its detail as expected in any book is moderate. Learning the true methodologies of BPM requires experience and additional reading. This book however does serve as a useful tool in understanding BPM and its mehtodologies as well as standardising a roll out.

Anyone who's interested in process improvement needs to invest in this book. Written in simple plain language, the book simplifies bpm and bpi.
Though I bought this book based on other people's reviews, I am proud to send mine. If you are new in business process management, redesign or even re-engineering, this is a good place to start. I have found this book as a great material with real-life examples. It is an excellent guide for implementing a process improvement or management project. I am currently working on a business process improvement project for one of my training programs and I have found the ideas expressed in this book handy.
As a six sigma specialist, I find myself reading similar books but this book stands out and I look forward to the next page as I read on.

I am very blessed to have had the opportunity to come across the book after hearing from my friends that it was special. A topic so dull and drab made so interesting and simple is amazing and incredible.

A must read publication. The author is consice and does not stray from the topic. It all comes down to how one manages processes in the business environment for maximizing efficiency. That is exactly what the book concentrates on.
The Author does a fantastic job of going into detail about important topics.
I am hoping for future publications from the author. I highly recommend this book.

This book is one of those typical exceptions that you come accross now and then. It is exceptionally good reading for both business and IT. It creates a common understanding of the typical challenges one meets when involved in an IT / BPM implementation project.

A book that you can actually use during all the phases of an implementation project. Buy it now! No really, do it.

I've actively utilized several of the leadership tools provided in "Corporate Catalysts" to much success. Dan Coughlin provides thoughtful, insightful and most of the time simplistic tools (yet for some reason other books try to make it complicated) that if implemented can accelerate not only your ability to be a better leader but to gain the confidence as you take on more and more responsibility as a leader. It's a stand out in a overcrowded, over jargoned environment of business how-to books.

Coughlin's principals have succeeded in energizing an entire team of us at my office. The book's a fast and valuable read, chock full of "get-to-it" advice and counsel that requires little more than an honest assessment of one's personal work style and a determination to make it better.

Corporate Catalysts has countless applications professionally and personally. It has helped me to clarify my desired outcomes and given me a roadmap to achieve them. Although the concepts are designed to provide value over the long haul, I have noticed immediate improvement in performance and relationships using the tools Dan Coughlin has developed. I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking to add depth and breadth to their professional and personal relationships.

Dan Coughlin's book is serving as a blueprint for helping our company's young leaders hone their individual leadership skills and build stronger, more effective teams. Our creative services director was so impressed with Coughlin's ideas that she's putting together an "acceleration" course for her entire team. They will meet weekly and discuss their individual and team progress in implementing Coughlin's easy-to-follow steps for becoming corporate catalysts. I recommend this book without reservations. You might say it's deceptively simple. Sometimes the best ideas are like that. A good investment of your time and money.

People at every level at every organization struggle on a daily basis trying to understand what they can do to impact their organizations. Dan Coughlin provides a roadmap to success for each of these individuals. His ideas are straightforward, yet thought provoking. He not only tells you what to do in order to be a catalyst, he tells you what NOT to do. He masterfully uses "real world" examples and anecdotes throughout the book that make his points easy to understand and implement

I LOVE this book. It's my "go to" when I want to know something. It was also my "go to" when I was still a dreamer.
If you want to be a hobby farmer, then this book is a must have.
It's got wonderful information, and beautiful clear photos.
This is one out of two of my favorite farming books.

I checked this out from the library. I'm so glad they had a copy since the book is so expensive! I really like this book because I'm not quite sure what all I want to include in our future farm, so it gives just enough information on many different animals and other farming options for me to be able to make my decision when the time comes.

The book is 192 pages and has tons of pictures and sketches. It offers suggested layouts for small, medium and large farms. It discusses different kinds of fences and shelters and how to build them, and it even offers recipes in the back of the book you can make from your own home-grown ingredients!

I will definitely check this book out again in the future, and if the price comes down, I would like to have it in my own library.

I found this book to be very informative. A good teaching book on the many aspects of tools, animals, food, and more. It is a fantastic book. I really enjoyed it and recomend to everyone even remotely interested in this subject.

This is a very attractive book --- like all Dorling Kindersley books, it's beautifully published with brilliant photos and Heiney surely knows his stuff, but, at 192 pages, this is really an inspirational book more than anything else. It's also out of print and, as of today, I see someone is attempting to sell a copy for $347.00 (and used book searchs won't turn up many better prices). Please. Go to your library and if they don't have it, order it through inter-library loan. Look through the sections that might apply to your situation a couple of times. Take a few notes. You'll thank me later.

The Bible of the Self-sustaining Farmer! A must for anyone remotely interested in the basics and essentials of a truly agrarian lifestyle. This book is very hard to find nowadays and is out of print. However, it is worth the effort to track it down.

I ordered this book for a friend who is very interested in this type of history and he was very pleased with the style and detail of the narration. Since my childhood was spent in South Dakota, I am reading the book myself and am fascinated by the tales of the cowboy life in the early years.

Ike Blasingame was a Texas cowboy working for the Matador Land and Cattle Company when the company expanded its operations in 1904 and leased just-opened range land along the Moreau River in South Dakota south of today's Mobridge. Blasingame was among the cowboys sent along with 3,000 head of cattle to this new area, and this being 1904 both men and beasts went the modern way - by train. Evarts (no longer extant) was the shipping point. For the next 10 years or so Blasingame punched cattle for the Matador, and this is his account of that experience, dictated to his wife who wrote it all down, many years after the fact.

Blasingame relates his story in a leisurely narrative style. His memory was obviously good - at least that's the impression given with many names given and events told as if they happened yesterday. There are the usual stories about bad weather, stampeding cattle, mean horses (and useful cowponies), branding, shy cowboys around the ladies, and the often dull times rounding up cattle or driving them to the railhead one finds in memoirs like this, but Blasingame keeps things lively and interesting. The Matador had a big spread in Canada, and sometimes Blasingame was sent there on his cowboy duties, but he was always glad to return to Dakota. When the company began closing their leases he bought a ranch on his old stomping grounds and ranched there with his wife and kids until the Dust Bowl troubles forced him to move to California, where he continued his ranching ways with an outfit there. Lovers of the Old West and the lives of the cowboys who worked the range will enjoy this book a lot.

Well-told stories of cowboy life in the Dakotas and Canada at the turn of the century. Highly recommended. A joy to read. A great plain-speaking, direct style. Lots of dry humor. Left me wishing I could spend more time with "Wild Ike." Overall, it is a bronc-buster's view of a slice a history - the arrival of cattle herds on a large South Dakota reservation, the heyday of the cattle business there, and finally the demise of free range ranching in that area and the arrival of the homesteader. I was a little concerned that it would be the story of cowboy life 20 years after the end of the cowboy era. But there are no pickup trucks or ATVs in this narrative, just cattle and horses, cowboys and Indians. His profiles of dozens of horses (woven into the narrative) would be worthwhile even without the other stories. (Here's a tip - there is a fold-out map on the last page. I figured that out when I got to the last page, but you will be happy to have the map as you read.)

I am the son of Ike Blasingame the author. This is not a fiction book. Every event and place are true. On the map all the creeks and places are in their correct places as well as the tributaries which run into the Moreau River, and Missouri River. There are 3 million acres of the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation leased by the Matador Land & Cattle Co. of Texas who then sub leased to 10 other New Mexico and Texas cattle ranches, all having seperate brands, (like L7, Turkey Track, and DZ). Chief Sitting Bull died in 1899 but Ike Blasingame bought horse from Sitting Bull's brothers, One Bull and Lone Bull.

Ray Blasingame - Paisley, OR

Of all the cowboy memoirs, this is one of the best. Ernest "Ike" Blasingame was barely twenty when he went from Texas to South Dakota in 1904 to cowboy for the Matador Land and Cattle Company on rangeland leased from the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation. His account of that experience covers the next 7-8 years, and it's a well-told story full of memorable incidents, cowmen, and horses. There's an excellent balance between informative explanations of the work of cowboys on the ranges and amusing anecdotes, accounts of mishaps and accidents, and nicely drawn descriptions of personalities and behavior revealing depth of character (or lack of it) among his colleagues.

The roll of the seasons and the extremes of weather are well described, including the fatal winter of 1906-07. Indians also figure prominently in the narrative, and you can get a good understanding of the cattle industry itself in the years before the West was transformed by homesteading settlers and small farmers. Demon rum has a role to play in the fortunes and misadventures of these men, and there are insights into the social history of the all-male, bachelor work force who performed the hard labor of working cattle.

Remembered and told 50 years later (the book was first published in 1958), Blasingame tells his story as though it happened yesterday. It is full of youthful enthusiasm and wide-eyed enjoyment of his work and his growing reputation as a fine young bronc rider, taming the company's unbroken horses and winning the respect of the men he works for, who quickly trust him to rep for the Matador at roundups on other ranges.

It's not clear how much of the writing is really Blasingame's. He gives credit to his wife "who wrote this while I talked." And it may well be she to whom we owe the credit for this lucid, well-organized, vividly described memoir. At any rate, as a joint project, it provides a wealth of information and entertainment for anyone interested in the real West of working cowboys. It's a classic. And thanks to the University of Nebraska Press for keeping it in print.