It is the most stunning piece of literature ever. My friends and I decided to read it for our book club, and were absolutely blown away. Go, tell your friends! Buy it for the holidays, it's a great stocking stuffer. Now my friends and i write our emails to each other our newly written Latin poems. It is a great resource, and a true treasure.

I think that this book is the most amazing latin meter book in the world.... David Califf is awesome!!!! I think everyone should buy it even if they don't speak the language... WOOOO WOOOO! Go Latin III !!!!!

Hong Kong Action Theatre! 2nd Edition is a game based on Chinese action films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The Killer. It attempts to accurately portray the style of these films and tries to cover all the genres: kung fu, wire fu, gunplay, and so on.

Players portray actors in Hong Kong cinema. Characters are created using Guardians of Order's simple Tri-Stat system, rounding out the character with skills like gun combat and kung fu and special attributes to set the actor apart like Director's Friend or Cantopop Star.

The actor is the character that players will be portraying every single game. Their abilities and attributes will remain stable. However, the character's Role changes from one session to the next.

Each session is a movie, and the Role is the actor's part in the movie. A Role can be anything from Triad Assassin to Hard-Boiled Cop to Drunken Fisherman. Each Role has unique abilities that stack on top of your actor's for that specific session.

Another interesting quirk of the game is Stunts. During combat, players are encouraged to have their characters do the wild and death-defying stunts of Hong Kong cinema. The wilder and more dangerous the stunt, the better the reward. Characters are rewarded by the gamemaster with Star Power points which represent the Actor's pull in the cinema world and his or her popularity with the audience. These can be cashed in for rerolls and other goodies such as script rewrites (e.g. the villain happens to be standing next to barrels of flammable liquid).

The game also contains a lot of "real-world" information on Hong Kong and the history of Hong Kong cinema that some might find interesting and others might find to be a waste of space in a roleplaying game book.

The game is great. With an energetic group with a feel for the Hong Kong action genre, you can make movies to rival Hong Kong blockbusters. In some respects, I feel that HKAT lumps too many of the genres together with no demarcation between gun fu, kung fu, and wire fu films, and so they all get smushed together. In general, it's fun, original, creative game and a worthy second edition to the original by Gareth Michael-Skarka.

Gameplay is episodic, with each game session being a "movie" independent of other game sessions. The movies can cover any of the traditional Hong Kong action film genres.

This is a solid system for a Kung Fu movie action game. This is made by Guardians of Order, so it uses the Tri-Stat System (if you've played BESM, this will be very familiar). The basic system is based on three stats: body, mind, and soul. You use these base stats to calculate your health, energy, starting star power, and attack and defense values. You then buy attributes and defects that customize your character. HKAT! 2 offers a wide variety of attributes and defects that allow you to build any kind of character. And if the attribute or defect you need doesn't exist, you can make a new one! (The GM, of course has say on what is allowed.) HKAT! 2 has the unique concept that the PCs (Player Characters) are actors playing roles in movies. When you make your character you make an actor, and can only buy an attributes and defects that are open or actor only. Then you use star power to bid on the role you want to play. Now you buy role attributes and defects to add to your character to simulate the special effects crews and such (the role attributes and defects go away at the end of a movie), and you can use leftover star power to improve the role too. What's cool about the role/actor concept is that your group can play a wide variety of games, say a horror action thriller one time, then a waxia (as in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) next. Also using star power, one person can have the lead role one movie, and some else can outbid him for the lead next time, so everyone gets a chance to be at the center of a game. At the end of a movie, the GM hands out star power rewards you use on the next movie. What you get is based on what you bid as well as how well everyone did and bonuses the GM may hand out. This encourages everyone to work as a group, as if the group "wins" the movie, everyone will get more star power. Another good point is that if you die, it's not necessarily bad, because it's only your role that dies, not your actor, and if you die heroically, this can be worth bonus star power!
Make no mistake, this is a Role-playing game, with emphasis on role-playing rather than dice roles and statistics and rules. While creation is a little involved, it's fairly straightforward one you get use to it. For resolving actions the Tri-Stat system offers one of the simplest systems I've seen.
Combat is also petty simple, I won't go into the details here, if you've played other tri-stat games, you'll be on familiar turf. HKAT! 2 does, however offer some optional combat rules that are worth mention. When you attack, you can choose whether to deliver a high, low, or medium kick or punch and you can target an opponent high, low or torso. The type of blow you deliver gives a bonus or penalty to your damage and initiative, for example, a light punch will let you attack sooner, but won't do as much damage as a hard kick. The attack location affects your opponent's defense, if you attack low, but you opponent defends high, your opponent will have a harder time defending.
The system, in summary is simple, yet flexible enough to handle any thing from swordplay and magic attacks in ancient China to a fierce shootout in modern Hong Kong.
And finally, I'll cover the quality of the book. As is typical of Guardians of Order, this is a well-done book. It's a good read with cool art and it is very clear. There is also a lot of extra martial here besides just the game. There is a section on Hong Kong, one on the history of Hong Kong film, one with summaries on a lot of Hong Kong films, and finally some sample adventures to get you started. The extra info is really great, especially for some like me who only has little knowledge on Hong Kong film; this book is a treasure trove of info for creating you own Hong Kong action film game. The only flaw I saw in this book is that the last line in some of the sidebars at the beginning of the book was truncated, and while this is annoying, no impotent information was lost (it was mostly flavor text) and this flaw doesn't greatly detract from enjoyment. Given how error riddled other role-playing games (just look at the errata on 3rd edition D&D) are, I couldn't justify taking off a point for this. I highly recommend this book if you want a simple and flexible system for an action Hong Kong style game.

I had to use this book as a report on Ancient Egypt. It had so much information on everything that I needed. It had information on mummies, life, and gods, and more all in this book. If it wasn't for this book I wouldn't be hear with a good grade.

As an educator and parent, I found this book to be phenomenol! The kids in my classroom were fascinated by all the details and illustrations that show what it was really like to be an Egyptian on a daily basis. It has a "quiz" at the end of the book that's fun to take to test your skills as to what you learned. This book really takes you back to Egypt and helps you put your own two feet into the real world of Egypt! Superb detail on every subject; housing, foods, typical daily life, women in society, mummification. Just wonderful!

This book was Great! everyone should read it

Orlans et al have made a novel and invaluable contribution to the ethical debate concerning "The Human Use of Animals". As a biomedical researcher of fifteen years , I appreciated the frank objectivity that the authors brought to such morally complicated issues as animal experimentation, modern animal farming practices, and religious sacrifice. Each of the case studies presented invokes considerable soul searching and further challenges the reader to question whether we as humans are doing enough to meet our moral obligations to nonhuman animals. These moral obligations, highlighted in the various case studies, are not derived from any legalistic or heady philosophical meanderings but rather stem from an intrinsic sense of right and wrong. The case studies presented in this and hopefully future volumes of "The Human Use of Animals" should become required reading in biomedical ethics curricula.

This book in conjunction with Anderson's "Modern Compressible Flow with Historical Perspective" will give you and excellent fundamental background in high temp gas dynamics. I think the third section alone of this book (which introduces stastical mechanics, kinetic theory, chemically reacting flows, equilibrium and nonequilibrium flows) is worth the price.

I just finished reading an old edition, whihc is late 80's and it's incredible, I can't wait to get this new edition. If you like aerodynamics and are interested in space re-entry vehicles, for sure you should have this book in your personal library.

Eckblad and Kiel are right on target. They provide excellent advice in a concise, easy to follow form. It's never too late (or too early) to make the ultimate investment - in yourself. Their program is so sensible that you will wonder why you didn't embark on it ages ago.

I was revising my life plans and goals when I stumbled across an article on this book. Many of the concepts are similar to those I tried to communicate in my books (Conscious spending for Couples and The Ms. Spent Money Guide), but applied to ones whole life... it's a nice structure for something that I have always done and always preached that others do - align what you do with what you truly value. Even if you don't buy the book, please buy the concept! It's great.

I love the way this book has you work out problems in the margins as you go through the reading. This makes sure that you understand the work that you've read about, before you go on to the next piece. I also like the fact that every other odd problem is solved step-by-step in the back of the book.

Good Exercises and Examples,follows my childs High School Algebra every step of the way. The only problem is the web site is not working yet, but the book is worth more than it is sold for.

I bought this book for my daughter to celebrate Halloween. It is her favorite holiday so we read this book year round. The story is about a pig named John who is too scared to go trick or treating on Halloween with his friends. John stays back at the house as his friends go on without him. After they leave a real witch comes calling for some treats. When she sees that John only has candy to hand out she decides to teach hime how to make some real Halloween treats. They whip up such heavenly connoctions as pies, tarts, mousse, sundaes, and cookies. All of the witch's monster friends show up for a real Halloween party. Finally the witch tells John that they have to leave while it is still night out. When John's pig friends come back cold and tired they are amazed to find all of the treats that John has prepared. When John goes to bed he realizes he is no longer afraid of Halloween and he dreams of all of the new friends he has made. The illustrations in this book are great and the story is really sweet. My daughter loves this book and I really enjoy reading it to her. This book will really put you into a Halloween mood.

I fell in love with this book from the start. I loved how John Pig portrayed his feelings about Halloween. There was so many adorables pictures that you begin to see new things in the pictures that you didn't see before. The witch is great - My kids loved that idea that she was a fun witch. The food she made sounded heavenly... What a great book for kids.... My children adore this book as do I.

As a teenager in London in the late 1960s I remember the daily ritual of nipping in to Joe Lyons Corner House to sneak a cup of tea and a last cigarette before going to school. Little did I (or any other customer) know what had been going on behind the scenes. This book lets us in on the secret.

It tells how a UK catering company, J. Lyons and Co, got involved in the design, development and building of an electronic computer initially for their own use but subsequently for other customers. Written and edited by many of the people involved, the book is a mix of personal recollection and documentation from the period. It is the story of an extraordinary innovation, conceived and developed by a group of talented and incredibly hard-working people, made possible by the vision of the senior management who in 1949 "resolved to introduce, before anyone else in the world, what it called an 'automatic calculator'"

The book has four parts. Part I, by David Caminer gives a brief description of the successful running on a stored program electronic computer of the world's first regular routine office job in November 1951, and some background on Lyons. The rest of Part I charts the history of the development and use of the Leo computer and its derivatives from its conception in the late 1940s up to the demise of the Leo computers in 1968 by which time some 82 Leo systems had been installed. The last few, located at the Post Office, continued in service until 1981.

The rest of the book consists of personal contributions from many of the individuals who worked for Leo Computers. Part 2 provides an insight into the early task of programming - a non-trivial task in the days before computer languages had been developed. It includes reminiscences of many of the early applications that ran on LEO computers. Part 3 provides some more detailed recollections by those involved of working for specific customers. Part 4 documents the export efforts of LEO computers and later English Electric to gain a foothold in South Africa and the Iron Curtain and ends with an evaluation of the approach behind LEO by John Aris. A small number of appendices provide extra details to events depicted elsewhere in the book.

As well as being a fascinating piece of historical writing the book provides food for thought in the supposedly computer literate world of the 21st Century. Spectacular computer disasters such as the London Stock Exchange's Taurus system have left us with rather jaundiced perceptions about computer projects . Why were Lyons better at implementing computer systems?

One major factor was that before automating business processes the Lyons team ensured that they were well understood and ready for computerisation. Long before the prospect of computers came along, Lyons had established a systems research office with the brief to constantly search out how improvements might be made to the business by changing processes. Consequently, Lyons was more aware of the possible uses of computers and also that the large costs of development could be recouped. Lyons only computerised applications where it could see a clear business benefit. In contrast to much of the rest of the computer industry LEO's sales were based on an application-led approach rather than a technology-led approach. This was partly because LEO could not compete head to head in terms of technology but largely reflected the history of Lyons own innovative approach to business processes. It is clear from the book that Lyons consultants had a harder task implementing systems in their customers businesses than they did with their in-house applications.

Also the standards for good practice set by the management were extremely high. The "six articles of faith" documented in John Aris's evaluation of the LEO approach, which became embedded in the way the LEO teams went about their computerisation projects are another major factor. These can be summarised as follows: 1. The computer system should be thorough and radical. Understand the system as a whole. Re-think the processes rather than simply automate the existing ones. Make the system produce management information as well as transactions. Do a proper job. 2. Check everything. Program errors are a deadly sin, to be eliminated come what may. 3. Design of input and output documents is critical. 4. Detailed systems specifications must be written, agreed and frozen before any programming can begin. 5. Computer time is expensive, programmer time is cheap. Using a lot of human effort and ingenuity to minimise run times is an excellent bargain. 6. Before a computer can be configured enough work has to be done on both specification and detailed design to ensure it will be powerful enough.

While it may no longer be true that programmers are cheaper than run time, it seems that many of the problems related to software development even now might benefit from a stricter following of the other five articles of faith.

Of course the kinds of applications that LEO was devoted to might be considered routine today and the expectations of what can be done with computers are far greater. As long ago as 1972, Edgar Dikstra, a pioneer of computer science, recognised the problem that this expectation created when he wrote:

"as the power of the available machines grew by a factor or more of a thousand, society's ambition to apply these machines grew in proportion............ [t]he increased power of the hardware, together with the perhaps even more dramatic increase in its reliability, made solutions feasible that a programmer had not dared to dream about a few years before. And now, a few years later he had to dream about them and, even worse, he had to transform such dreams into reality!"

Most people would have thought that the people from Lyons who considered developing an electronic computer in 1947 were dreaming. This book is a fitting tribute to all those involved in daring to bring this particular dream to reality.

Amazon Review 21 January 2000

Professor Dick Nolan of the Harvard University Business School writes in his introduction to the book:

"This story has the best qualities of a Harvard Business School case study: it is an important event in the history of the business.

It is a study about extraordinary people ... As confident executives they look outside their company, in other countries, at universities to discover new ways of doing things and fresh ideas. In their bold actions, trust shows through as a foundation in implementing their vision. Young people are given free reign and do not disappoint. A resulting exiting, challenging 'can-do' culture is heard in the words of the people who were there."

From Dr Terry Gourvish, Director Business History Unit, LSE, in Business History Newssheet,

"This is a major contribution to the history of computing and computers in the UK. A full scale case study of LEO computers, written by members of the team who experienced all its trials and tribulations, it provides a fascinating insight into the development by J. Lyons & Co. of the first business computer in the UK."

From Neil Fitzgerald, editor of CA magazine, in The Scotsman, Business section. .

"Can-do culture, empowerment, user-driven innovation, business process re-engineering, flat organisations, quality, short lines of communications and decision making. We are led to believe that these are radical, modern ideas. However, a book that has come into my hands shows that they were being successfully harnesses almost half a century ago, to create the most significant event ever in business management.

The editors ... tell the story of how they and others built and put to work the world's first business computer. This did not happen in California's Silicon Valley, but at Cadby Hall, the ... west London premises of Lyons.

An important facet was that they felt they should always take a strategic view of the whole function to be computerised and make recommendations for improvements before going to work."

From Dr John Pinkerton, review in ICL Technical Journal

"Telling the story of how the foundations of data processing were laid from 1949 onwards has evidently been a labour of love.

This is a work of scholarship but eminently readable nevertheless. It will be seen as a major contribution to the history of business computing; it is strongly recommended for anyone already working in or studying to enter the field of IT."

From Michael Braithwaite, Deloitte, Touche, European Journal of Information Systems.

"I commend this book to a wide audience. To the general reader it stands as a very well written and exciting account of technological innovation. To the business school student it presents a remarkable story of technological success that, as a commercial venture was flawed, perhaps by factors beyond the control of the players."

From Professor George Mitchell, review published Journal of Operational Research Society..

"This fascinating book tells the life story of LEO. Rather over a third of the book is the historical record, carefully researched and engagingly written up by Caminer. The rest is largely personal memoirs of those involved in the early days, including accounts of several innovative applications. The whole is rounded off by an evaluation by Aris. The book's value is enhanced by the style of writing. Those who worked in LEO, especially in its earlier days, including many of the book's authors, exercised an influence on the development of business computing in the UK quite disproportionate to their numbers.

I found this book a good read and one which exited several strands of thought. Although its main market will be among scholars and students of IT and business studies, it deserves a wide readership in the OR community."

From John Perkins, National Computer Centre Newsletter,

"The book, ...., is a fascinating adventure story in which the dynamics of an extraordinary group of people made the seemingly impossible happen."

From Professor John Ward in the Journal of Strategic Information Systems.

"The story of that first business computer: Leo - Lyons Electronic Office - is told in this book. Whilst it is history, reflection on what was achieved and not achieved and why still has many lessons of relevance to the successful use of IT today - we seem to be learning painfully and slowly!.

.... a review by John Aris of what of what he calls the 'LEO approach' - an integrated combination of technology innovation, application and consultancy designed to enable significant business improvements from computer use in a range of situation. Many of these applications would be called 'business process redesign' in the 1990s!

The wide range of contributors provide many different perspectives on what happened and views on why things evolved the way they did. It is a set of memoirs - often very personal ones - of a time when Britain could be said to have led the world in the application of this new technology.

... it is a book that we should all be grateful the authors took the time and trouble to get together and write. It is a story of extraordinary achievements , by a talented team..."

From I. A. Lovelock in Management Accounting.

"This book is a first-hand account of how this astounding innovation came about. It is a flesh and blood, warts and all story related by the participants, brimming over with the same enthusiasm that enabled the unlikeliest of organisations to lead the way into the future that we are all familiar with today.

It concludes with different strands coming together to provide the essence of the LEO credo of comprehensive, integrated, secure, action stimulated implementations.

Not just a great collector's item, but a well written story that one can't put down. The pictures draw you in and the writing makes you want more from this author. Their is too little written on this region that boasts a terrific rail history. There's something indescribable that keeps you pulling the book out and looking at it again and again.

Some well needed LVRR material from upstate New York. The pictures of the branch line action are GREAT.I keep on going back for more!!! I would like to see another come out with more photos of the upstate region.