Remember, this was published in 1990, and today is out of date. If you have come looking for specific examples, or secrets of how the Japanese have been making such huge gains, THIS IS NOT FOR YOU. The book is great from a historical standpoint, but it misses totally on any detailed examples of what Toyota has done. Anyone in manufacturing who has not heard of work-circles or suggestion boxes, would probably find this a great read with lots of info, but for the rest of us, this is just a history book. Go for Lean Thinking instead.

The Machine that Changed the World has been published more than once. Amazon, you're offering a special "buy these 2 titles, and save", but they are the exact same book.

This book is about a major study that has been executed in the beginning of the eighties about the competiveness of car manufacturing plants. Now we know that the Japense manufacturing is not that supriour after all this book is still a great book to read. For two reasons. First because its give a clear idea about how you can run a succesfull manufacturing plant and secondly because its give you a beautifull insight about a time when both Europe and the USA were affraid to loss it all to the Japanse. A classic on both business and industrial engineering

This is an enjoyable and wimsical tale set in White Wolf's World of Darkness halfway through the second millenium. Unfortunately this book is no longer in print, but White Wolf, in an effort to remedy this, has reprinted it along with the second book in the series, Blood and Fire. I just finished my first read through the book, and soon I will be telling this tale of the Giovanni's beginnings, via the fall of their founders, the ancient Cappadocians. I hope others who read this will feel the sense of awe and fear that the World of Darkness conjures in me.

The Giovanni Saga 1 makes up the first of two collections of books detailing not only the creation of the Giovanni clan but the time and events leading up to it. This edition contains the now out of print first two books of the Giovanni Chronicles (The Last Supper and Blood and Fire). The first book details the main players in the Conspiracy of Isaac, the founders, and other minor players. The second explains the beginnings of Clan Giovanni and the troubles it faced in the beginning. The entire book is set up as instructions for the storyteller, with ideas for live-action roleplay and character stats. The book, aside from a very nonlinear and detailed chronicle, can also be enjoyed by simply reading as any other book. The book includes detailed storyteller information for every possible variation in the story. I recommend this book for anybody who plays vampire, is interested in the Giovanni, wants to host the greatest chronicle ever, or just wants to read a really neat book.

This is an enjoyable and wimsical tale set in White Wolf's World of Darkness halfway through the second millenium. Unfortunately the books The Last Supper and Blood & Fire are no longer in print, but White Wolf, in an effort to remedy this, has reprinted them in this superb compilation, I await the next parts of the series. I just finished my first read through the book, and soon I will be telling this tale of the Giovanni's beginnings, via the fall of their founders, the ancient Cappadocians. I hope others who read this will feel the sense of awe and fear that the World of Darkness conjures in me.

This was a book that I dreaded to read for a college class. I opened it and stared at the cover with dread. However, I was very surprised to find that it was easy to understand and even.....interesting? Yes, I admit, I fell in love with the subject of genetics by reading this book. It had real world applications and provided many sample questions. The pictures were great and a perfect addition to the entire book. I really enjoyed this book.

As a undergrad at Harvard who took Prof Hartl's intro genetics class (in which we used this textbook), I can tell you that this encompasses all the information we covered in a semester-legnth class. What you miss out on, however, is Prof Hartl's funny, engaging teaching style and graphically complex computer demos. That said I learned (both from class and this book) why female cats' fur can be calico and other interesting applications of genetics. In the age of the Human Genome Project, basic genetics knowledge is crucial, and this book is a great intro to the topic.

Dylan Thomas was a weirdo and i think that this book illistrates that in a wonderful manner. he was awesome

Years ago i read "do not go gentle into that good night" and i was introduced to dylan thomas. i quickly went out and bought his collected poems, and was totally enraptured by the poet. he has stayed on the top of my favorites, even as i read more and more poetry. this collection is not a complete works. it contains what Daniel Jones (a friend of DT's) selected out of thomas' works. the collected poems and about 100 other poems, one additional incomplete poem, and 26 poems from DT's juvenalia. it's a good collection, but you can see why dylan thomas did not include these extra poems in his collected poems. they aren't as great as what he can produce. if you love dylan thomas, like i do, then this is a great book to buy, otherwise, you can just stick with the collected poems (those poems were selected by DT himself, as the work he wanted to "save").

The Machine That Changed the World; The Story of Lean Production
A great book that although becoming a little outdated portrays the ongoing trends in the automobile production industry in three major cultural areas.
The three areas are;the Asian lean production (Toyota) v.s. the American system,(mass production) v.s. the European craftsman system. On a larger scale it will and is affecting manufacturing everywhere.
Henry Ford was the founder of the American mass production system, and Ford was very successful adopting it to the aircraft and steel industries. American companies adopted this system and it is one of the main reasons for American pre-eminence in many industries worldwide. Toyota has become the founder of the Lean system of manufacturing. Most of the
early adherents to this system were other large Japanese companies, and responsible for the Japanese manufacturing miracle since the 1960's, as it was adapted from automotive to all manner of industries.
The book is well written and interesting even though it is based on an MIT study of global trends in the auto industry. I would like to see an update to this book. The one anomaly I see is the German Automobile industry. If Japan and Korea have some of the most efficient auto manufacturing plants in the world and
North America is becoming more competitive, what is happening in Europe comes as no surprise. Many European automakers have yet to fully embrace American mass production techniques and are now faced with the greater efficiencies of Lean
production. The book does not explain in my mind the success of the German Auto industry. It seems to be the one exception to the rule.

This book is a classic on the advantages of being lean - Product Design, Manufacturing, Supply Chain Management - the entire gamut from concept to delivery in the Automobile industry.

What Ford's mass production did to craft production and its profound effects on the developed economies in the first half of the last century is an old but interesting story. With the advent of Ford's manufacturing techniques, there was a consolidation in the Auto industry. Within a couple of decades the number of automobile manufacturers fell from over a hundred to less than twenty and the big three cornering over ninety percent of the market share. Detroit became the center of pilgrimage for the rest of the world trying to emulate and replicate this success story in other continents.

Silently, the Japanese led by Toyota were working on a different concept of putting the automobile in the hands of the customer, at better quality, lesser costs, shorter development times and with the ability to offer a wider choice. The statistics collected from these "lean systems" is mind boggling. The competitive advantage that Japan enjoyed over the American system was neither due to lower wages in Japan nor due to higher levels of automation as widely believed. It was primarily the lean machine that was conquering the mass machine.

This book is based on the research done in the 1980's and published around 1990. The authors while acclaiming lean manufacturing as the panacea for the ills of manufacturing systems globally had at the time of the research and the publication of this work, probably ignored the next major change that would sweep across continents. Cars ride on highways, but today's businesses are quickly shifting gear and using a super fast highway for collaborating and for managing their global presence. Thanks to the Internet, the economics of information is transforming the economics of things. Dell is probably a good example of the new business model that could not have been imagined in the 80's. The tearing down of artificial walls across countries and continents also happened in the last decade.

We are badly in need of a repeat research study of the kind done in this book, in the face of the new realities. Global companies run by global citizens serving a global market and using a global currency will probably happen sooner than we expect.

I read this book while working for a major software firm--it was fascinating to me that Toyota could update their automobiles faster than we could bring out a new operating system.

This study of the world automotive industry by a group of MIT academics reaches the radical conclusion that the much vaunted Mercedes technicians are actually a throwback to the pre-industrial age, while Toyota is far ahead in costs and quality by building the automobiles correctly the first time. The lesson that it cost more to fix it than to build it correctly should be applicable to a lot of industries--not just manufacturing. The description of the marketing information system that Toyota uses was very enlightening. They involve the entire company in generating marketing feedback. Even dealer sales staff spend time working on the new product teams. Trust me, very few high-tech firms methodically collect feedback from their customers, and none have a system this comprehensive.

This is not just a book about lean production--this is guidance in understanding how your business operates and delivering good products that your customers want.

As a nonnative speaker of English who teaches English as a second language I've found this book to be a source of valuable information. Its wide coverage and the inclusion of alternative or variant pronunciations are among its best features. However, it is not possible to approach it without a working knowledge of the IPA. The explanations given in the introduction are hardly enough to aid production of the sounds. Explanatory notes are few and far between. In this aspect, I believe J.C.Wells' Longman Pronunciation Dictionary is a much more complete and detailed guide (especially for nonnative speakers).

The 15th edition of Daniel Jones English Pronouncing Dictionary follows the tradition of its ancestors. It gives not only details on British and American English, but also includes international place names and internationally known proper names. It is userfriendly and easy accessible, although to use it properly, the reader has to be used to IPA (International Phonetic Association / Alphabet) symbols, otherwise the transcripts are not readable. Nonetheless, the book has to compete with Wells' Longman Pronuncation Dictionary, of which a second edition is to come up. Already the first edition of it is a concurrent of Daniel Jones, both books serve the same purposes and are equally good. Either the one or the other should be on the bookshelf of each English student.

Unfortunately I sold this book during undergrad once my genetics course was over. Now at Medical School, I am rebuying it cause I know it works. Good explanations, pictures, ect. I would recommend it to anyone who wants a straight explanation...it's great if you are not a research based person.

Genetics is confusing. True or false? Genetics is quite enjoyable. True or false?

The answer can be true to either question, depending on which book you use to learn genetics for the first time.

Fortunately for me, our Biology department @BU chose Prof. Hartl's "Genetics." The book comes with nice diagrams to demonstrate certain concepts such as maternal effect and the Hardy Weinberg principle.

Of course, this book isn't perfect; it could use some improvements. Chapter 12--especially the section on bicoid genes in drosophila--took a while to slog through.

I suppose Prof. Hartl tried his best here, but this topic is confusing to begin with. It would have helped if pg 530-541 were rewritten. (I know that sounds very vague and fuzzy, but something about those pages just didn't click like other sections of the book).

Even if your Bio department doesn't use this version of "Genetics," I would recommend treating it as a reference book.

Good luck with genetics! Believe me, it CAN be fun and interesting....

-TheDeliman

ps: To be honest, the GeNETics sections at the end of each chapter were quite useless. Readers won't read much if they were written out of the Fifth Edition.... :)

When the average person thinks of the automobile industry, thefollowing names like Ford, General Motors, Chrysler, Honda, Toyota,Saab, etc. are likely to leap to mind. But what MIT's report points out is that the modern automobile industry is not represented just by these finished-product assemblers, but by suppliers and component craftsmen that constitute an extremely complex web that make up "the automobile industry." But the complexity of the automobile industry rests not only on the composition of the industry itself, but also the international environment within which the industry must operate. Domestic auto industries hold a special position in most countries in that most governments see the very existence of domestic auto producers as a good unto itself. For example, if a Japanese producer can engineer and produce a better widget, chances are that that producer will be able to market that product domestically and internationally with great success if widgets are not seen as a major threat to an important industry of another nation. But with automobiles (as was the case for Japanese producers in the early 1970's), the prospects for successful international competition is not so clear-cut. Automobile producers are therefore constrained not only by the forces of the market and competitors, but also by domestic and foreign governments that take a special interest in the success or failure of their firms.

Star Jones may come off as arrogant and overly self-confident, but that's why I love her. She's not afraid to say what she thinks. I'd rather read a book by someone interesting than one by someone who always puts themselves down.

"You Have to Stand for Something or You'll Fall for Anything" By Star Jones is the most inspiring book I have read in a long time. Star speaks as hard and meaningful as she does everyday on the hit show "The View". Every chapter has a message behind it that will make you think about your life in a way you did not before. The book ranges from many different topics that deal with our society on a day to day bases. It is one of those books that you start and you just can not put it down.

I enjoyed this book so much. Star Jones is definitely a role model for the young and old alike. She is sassy, educated, and a true DIVA! Her level of self-esteem is amazing and empowering. Her upbringing and closeness of her family members, reminds me much of my own relationships. I must say I can relate with so much of what she wrote. This is a "must read".

The second edition of this outstanding guidebook has been produced by people who were rightly content in general terms with the style and content of the first. Twelve pages of colour photographs have been added - calculated more to increase sales than to be of use to the traveller on the road.

Of the three sections, Part One, The Basics and Part Three, Contexts, are little changed. Between them, Part Two, The Guide, at 1005 pages is 76 pages longer. Regions which get an increase of twenty per cent or more are Dongbei, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hong Kong and Macau.

A few new routes have been added, including the roads from Chengdu to Shaanxi and from Mangshi south-east along the Burma border. The book notes the opening of western Sichuan and north-western Yunnan, but unfortunately and oddly provides little information about these important regions. In fact there is very little mention of a vast tract stretching generally south from the Xining-Lhasa road, through Qinghai, the Tibetan "Autonomous" Region and western Sichuan to north-western Yunnan.

Although that region warrants much more attention, it is inevitable that there will be some substantial regions that do receive little or no attention. All of north-eastern Sichuan/Chongqing, for example, is a blank. Perhaps it deserves to be; but a traveller is unlikely to find out unless he ventures there and explores for himself. This raises another unfortunate omission - any comprehensive account of which parts of China are still closed to foreign visitors without special permits. That matter is of little importance to travellers wishing to visit the "sights" listed in this guidebook, because few of those "sights" are in closed areas. That is, I expect, why the whole matter of what is closed amounts almost to a non-issue for the popular guidebooks. But it is certainly of importance to the traveller who, having reached this or that province with the help of a guidebook, wishes to go off to see what is in one of the blank areas. Comprehensive lists of what is closed are available, but hard to get, and available nowhere that I know of in English. Such a list, or better still a map of China showing the counties which are closed would be invaluable. That is exactly the kind of information that a guidebook of this kind should provide.

The great majority of the changes in this edition are in the detail - admission prices, opening hours, accommodation addresses and prices. Whether the new information is accurate will have to wait for on-the-road testing. But the very large number of detailed changes suggests that the revision has been thorough.

There is, of course, the usual and almost inevitable smattering of errors - Dehong described as an "Autonomous Region" (it is an autonomous prefecture) at page 810, Hubei abutting Sichuan (p503: it used to, but not since Chongqing was excised from Sichuan province in about 1997), the map on p773 showing part of Guanxi as incorporated in Guizhou province, Anhui not named on the map at p470, Macau omitted from the table of contents. An important error is the map on p898, showing the "Desert Highway" across the Taklamakan as joining the southern highway at Khotan, more than three hundred kilometres west of the actual junction, which is east of Minfeng (Niya).

I would have liked to see more attention to the regional maps rather than the twelve pages of pictures. The maps are, on the whole for their given scope, reasonably well done, fitting in well with the text. Their scale bars are sometimes awry, and maps of adjoining regions are sometimes incompatible - most notably the map of the north-west, which does not fit with the other maps at any scale.

So now I come to another special plea. Planning a trip through several regions calls for an overall map. In times gone by, fold-out or loose sheet maps were sometimes provided with guidebooks. Perhaps the practice was abandoned on the grounds of cost; it was not abandoned for lack of usefulness. Of course separate maps are available, but they are much less useful than a map would be if specially prepared for a particular guidebook - less useful because they include so many places not mentioned in the book, omit some that are, and in China may even use different names. After wrestling with adjustments to scales different from those indicated by scale bars I produced a single map of China from the regional maps in the new Rough Guide, and a most useful map it is for use in conjunction with the book.

When next I travel to China, the new edition of the Rough Guide will be the one I shall take, supplemented where needed and possible by information from other sources. ()

I traveled extensively throughout China in 1998, and I found the roughguide a much more practical book for getting around. The charts inside the guide allow you to find the information quickly, whereas the other popular guide forces you to flip through pages with apparent random entires of Chinese Characters, which can be frustrating and stressful when you climb into a chinese taxi in the middle of the road, and you need to show the driver where you want to go. Although lonely planet seems to have more detailed information, the well organized layout of the Roughguide makes it ten times more desireable when your actually on the road. I'm looking forward to the new edition, as I left my roughguide in China with a friend who only had a lonely planet!

The book describes in detail almost everything one needs to know about going to China. From reccomending large 5 star hotels to Yurts in out of the way villages, the Rough Guide helps you get there the way you want to get there. The guide is so detailed that it even reccomended a small village in the middle of Inner Mongolia called Zhaohe. I went there and found it to be what the guide promised...out of the way and no tourists. Invaluable information such as this makes traveling in an already crowded China more rewarding and interesting.