This was a very sweet cozy, Aunt Dimity's fans should I really like it. I know I did.

This is a nice little book to cozy up to and enjoy when you need a little chuckle. I enjoyed it.

In any case, whether a Ballard story is a total or only a partial success, it invariably provides plenty of food for thought. Three of them--"The Overloaded Man", "The Drowned Giant", and "The Garden of Time"--rank among my all-time favorites for their perfect fusion of speculative and mythic qualities. The more technology-based stories ("Concentration City", "The Voices of Time") are more interesting for their ideas than their execution.

In the introduction to this volume, Anthony Burgess hits on the central importance of Ballard's work: "Ballard considers that the kind of limitation that most contemporary fiction accepts is immoral... Language exists less to record the actual than to liberate the imagination." If you agree, buy this book.

For me, FINDING THE TITANIC did not sweep me away to a flood of thoughts.

Now we read him talking about the famous theory of oceans and black smokers inside Jupiter's icy but volcanically active moon Europa and suggesting that this idea originated with him and his Alvin team when in fact it was first proposed by NASA scientists more than twenty years ago. Does Bob Ballard really expect no one to remember that this theory was the central theme of Arthur C. Clarke's classic novel "2010"? Does he expect no one to remember the movie? As the Alvin crew have been heard to say, "How many 'o's do you spell your name with, Bob?"

Since we are talking about giving credit where credit is due, I must disagree with critics who cite a judge's claim that Ballard should not be credited with the discovery of the Titanic because he happened not even to be in the control van when the first boiler showed up on the screens. By that same argument, we should also give credit to the discovery that heralded the colonization of America not to Columbus but to the man who first sighted land from the Pinta's crow's nest. Let's be a little real, here....

I think the unusual lifeform he first photographed - the rusticles - have not only taken the wind out of his "take pictures only" argument's sails, they've capsized his whole damned boat. Had bio-archaeologist Roy Cullimore and I simply left the rusticles on the Titanic's hull plates untouched, without studying them more closely, we would never have found a primitive immune system that promises at least ten new antibiotics and perhaps a new anti-cancer drug as well. When Ballard writes, "take pictures only," he underestimates the importance of the unexpected, the power of serendipity in scientific endeavor.

I believe Mr. Koppel had a tough choice in crafting book - how to tell the story of the company and the personalities involved, while at the same time explain the technology - which is quite fascinating and a topic of its own. To achieve this and not end up with a 1000 page text is a hard thing to do.

However - I wish they had made a choice on covering one topic and doing it justice - in this case the story of the company and the personalities involved. Koppel managed to gloss over ...some (to me) very significant episodes in the history of the firm. Perhaps he was not privy to all the details - but that in itself is a confusing issue as well. It seems he had access to Geoffrey Ballard and Fairoz Rasul - but does mention that Rasul told him that Ballard Power Systems would not assist in the creation of this book. The timing of this statement is not clear - did it happen while the book was being researched or after or before?

This also leads to another problem in the accounts - they are very Geoffrey Ballard centric and as the book explains - Ballard was a powerful personality and therefore (assumption here) prone to being very opinionated. One wonders how much of the other 2 sides of the story ... we are missing.

Furthermore, Ballard was not actively involved in the company when it really made its transformation from R&D focused niche player to commercial entity. That period, to me as a student of organizational behaviour, would have been very rich in detail on how the company managed the change, got the message across, set its strategy, executed at the tactical level, protected its interests, won or lost on the issues, etc. All of that is given a summary passing over "obstacles were overcome ...", "effeciencies were increased...", etc.

That left me sort of hanging. I commend the book for taking on a very rich subject and trying to navigate the highlights. But that tactic left me just short of being really enlightened about either fuel cell technology or growing a small niche business into a viable commercial entity. Thus the mediocre score.

Fuel cells have long been successful in space craft. Soon you will be able to use them in your vehicles and buildings. Utility power plants typically discard about 60% of the heat energy from fuel. A fuel cell in your home would provide electricity efficiently. Instead of discarding the heat, you could use the fuel cell to heat your water everyday and provide some winter space heating.

A fuel cell in your vehicle will increase fuel efficiency and eliminate the need for oil changes.

About 40 cubic miles of crude oil remain available for more than six billion people, and we are consuming more than one cubic mile each year. By helping to reduce fuel consumption, fuel cells will help us to delay and reduce the severity of the coming shortages of fossil fuels.

When inovation and learning become fundamental for business, rules, standards, and established pieces of knowledge cannot be taken as guides, as they must also be renewed. Mangers ask: "How is it possible for people to cooperate in such an environment?"

Quality management has given an important contribution to improve business, emphasising the importance of customer satisfaction and extending the concept of customer to include internal clients, but we are recognizing that it is not enough. Modern business must satisfy all of its stakeholders: customers, employees, owners, suppliers, community, etc.

Management by Values focuses on the sources that drive the action of people and organizations. It treats business as a social system that emerges from the cooperation of different stakeholders. Management by values is not another program that management must do, but the very essence of management: it is caring about the relationships that keep the business alive.

The book in itself is a beautiful piece of work: succint, clear, pleasant to read. The principles of MBV are presented through the story of an executive who goes through the implementation process. The authors also supply information about real cases.

One limitation of the book is that, very understandably, it presents "Management by Values" as a consulting product. The reader should be aware that, independently of the methodology used, values are always what makes people act and things happen!

In spite of its limitation, this is a very instructive and pleasant book, and I believe readers will find it very valuable!

Gut Reactions: When I initially read the jacket of this book, I thought it would be more of the same old total quality management jargon. I expected to read a lot about statistical process control, just-in-time management and leadership from the bottom up. While several of these topics were mentioned in the book, they were by no means the major thrust of what the authors wanted us to learn. The focus was on leading, managing and working in an environment that focuses on the C-E-O-S of an organization. According to the text, these key constituency groups provide the structure within any successful organization. The foundation on which these organizations conduct business is one of commitment, not only to profit but also to business values like honesty, integrity, fairness, and cooperation, in other words, "managing by values." Written in a story format, the authors easily draw you into the life and problems of a CEO ((Tom Yeomans) who has finally realized that his way of managing may not be the best thing for himself, his family or his organization. Faced with this revelation, Tom makes a commitment to change his own way of managing and ultimately create a more ethical way of doing business within his organization.

Big Ideas: ·There are Three Acts of Life: Act I: Achieve (being-by-doing) Act II: Connect (being-by-being-with) Act III: Integrate (being-by-becoming) ·Fortune 500 Organizations depend on four pillars: C - Customers E - Employees O - Owners (stockholders) S - Significant others (community, creditors, suppliers,

vendors, etc.) ·Managing by Values Process Phase 1: Clarifying the mission/purpose and values - Owners - Top Management - Unit Leaders - Employees - Customers - Other Key Stakeholders Phase 2: Communicating the mission and values - Organization and Unit Events (meetings, celebrations, etc.) - Communication Materials (posters, brochures, etc.) - Formal Communications Mechanisms (newsletters, etc,) - Informal Communications Mechanisms (memos, voicemail, e- mail, etc.)

Phase 3: Aligning the daily practices with the mission and values - Individual practices (self management, problem solving, decision making and leadership practices) - Team practices (effective member practices, group dynamics and processes, stages of building high-performance teams) - Organizational practices (strategic management and development, organizational systems and processes, resource- barrier management, rewards and recognition practices) Continuous Improvement

Implications: - This story has implications beyond the corporate world. It challenges each of us to live our personal lives and conduct our business affairs within the same ethical framework. I now understand why in the past I've found myself at odds with the cultures and practices within an organization and why I ultimately chose to leave those organizations. This book could easily have been written about an elementary school, a college or university, a hospital or an insurance company. - The text also challenges us to integrate our need to achieve with our need to connect with others. It reminds us to keep the humanistic perspective in all that we do.

Questions: After reading Managing by Values, I had the following questions: - Why has it taken so long for us to recognize that ethical behavior is synonymous with customer service? - Can this type of management philosophy truly be successful in the business world? - Are there any organizations that have successfully implemented this philosophy? - Is this type of management philosophy being taught in business schools in the year 2000?

"The Drowned World" (Ballard's first novel) is set in a future where most of the planet is underwater or covered in lush jungle. Melting ice caps have caused the sea level to rise, and an altered climate has forced the population to flee to the areas of the Arctic and Antarctic Circles. Intense sunlight is causing the temperature to rise all the time, making the environment increasingly hostile to human life. The only creatures that thrive in the new conditions are fish, insects and reptiles, which are all growing bigger and bolder.

The mood of this book is brooding and melancholic. The small group of characters, who live in a tropical, submerged London, have dreams linked to a world millions of years in the past, as the Earth's ecology reverts to a prehistoric wilderness. There is an interesting discussion about the built-in "race memory" in the human psyche. People's fear of snakes and lizards can be linked to the time when early mammals lived in fear of the reptiles, who were the dominant lifeform millions of years ago. (And are becoming so again.)

I think some of the inspiration for "The Drowned World" may have come from John Wyndham's "The Kraken Wakes", which also featured a submerged London (although the climate was getting colder, not hotter). In turn "The Drowned World" may have been the inspiration for that much-maligned film "Waterworld". Ballard's writing style is descriptive like H.G. Wells and M.P. Shiel: poetic and elegant, if a little flowery.

Throughout the book there is an undercurrent of pessimism. This is not about adventure and discovery, but a world in decline (for humanity at least). In a planet prone to change, Earth has changed radically. Ballard plays with the theme of transformation in other books:"The Wind From Nowhere", "The Burning World" and "The Crystal World". In Ballard's series of disaster novels "The Drowned World" is, to use a cliche, the beginning of the End.

Yes, this is an experimental novel. Yes, you can call it magic realism, or whatever buzzword they're using nowadays to describe fiction that breaks or stretches the molds of traditional narrative structure, but despite all this, for anyone who has half a brain and loves good writing and mind-altering fantasy, this is a good novel. (Borges selected Ballard's awesome short story "The Drowned Giant" in the anthology The Book of Fantasy.") Ballard is brave enough to do a lot of self-exploration in his work -- he isn't afraid to expose himself totally, unlike some more marketable American pop authors I know. Ballard works in a genre all his own, and he's one of the most fascinating writers working today, in any "genre."