Very readable, covering why condition monitoring is important, the process of condition monitoring, and an overview of the major techniques.

informative, but not highly readable. Its worded very much like a textbook. But the information within is solid. It covers almost all the basic elements of entrepreneurship. I think its a great stepping stone for someone who knows nothing about starting his/her own business. From vc's to ipo's, its all in this book. But unless your going to start a business any time soon, it may be too specific. Either way, knowledge is power baby!

Call me morbid, but I liked the concept of hearing the present as well as day-dreaming thoughts of a dying man. While I would sometimes get lost in the rambling dreams, I especially liked how the writer developed the present situation in terms of where he was, who he had become, and who he was with.

The thoughts in between the spoken dialogue paints a glaringly introspective picture of a man and his relationship with a woman. I believed his perspective. I felt that he was seeing the relationship through a honest and real lens of death, while she seemed to be in a living shroud of "love" born out of her need and convenience. It is a rather typical portrait, a woman clinging to a man for emotional security and a man clinging to a woman out of a sense of failure to do anything else. The way he describes their relationship is telling about who he is: bare - real - a dying dog who wonders when and how he lost his bite. He can still perform the motions of everyday living, for her sake, but his truth is inescapable in his head. I found this relationship, and the discussion about passion vs. wealth and his reasons for choosing one over the other very intriguing.

What did the writer feel was left unwritten? We don't know what he wrote in the first place, maybe more of the same. It is written on the cover of my book that Hemingway said "I put all the true stuff in" this short story; with enough material to fill up four novels. Perhaps this was a story born out of a "writers block" period that felt like death to his spirit.

Why did the leopard go up the mountain and freeze to death? Not for food, not curiosity. Perhaps out of a desperate fling, like the writers reason for coming to Africa - to shake of the excess wealth and find his passion again. Instead, he found death and unrealized dreams. The writer found stories left unwritten, the panther a summit unreached, for us: something different.

My vote on one of the most interesting passages from the story: "We must all be cut out for what we do, he thought. However you make your living is where your talent lies. He had sold vitality in one form or another, all his life and when your affections are not too involved you give much better value for the money. He had found that out but he would never write that, now, either. No, he would not write that, although it was well worth writing."

Hemingway perhaps questioned wether or not he was supposed to be a writer - at the same time, however, he felt he had figured out one of the keys to be a successful writer: "A message bogged down with the writers own feelings and partialities decreases its merit or value". He seemed to feel that writers should retell their observations, without "making the waters muddy" with their own attachments. Yet if he wasn't meant to be a writer, if he didn't have "talent" or wasn't "cut out" for what he did, he wouldn't have understood that. So in the end, he feels vindicated...

Of course, he could have meant that affections were the death of vitality?

I like the workbook idea with the answers. It is easy to read and would be easy to understand if I had bought the companion book, Essentials of English. I recommend both if you have been out of school for a long time. I have learned a lot from the workbook. Now I plan to buy the companion book and go back through the workbook.

This marvelous reference book has chapters covering fantasy fiction, horror fiction, poetry in both genres, reference sources, teaching approaches, fantasy art and illustration, a theme index, and animation (film, television, radio). Two reservations kept me from judging the book a 5: it is a bit dated with few bibliographic references more recent than 1997, and it has some remarkable gaps of coverage. For example, neither Margaret Weis nor Tracy Hickman (nor the two as collaborators) appear; the book makes no reference to J. K. Rowling, either. A reference ignoring both the Dragonlance series of more than 150 novels and the widely popular and influential novels starring Harry Potter (at least the first one) desperately needs revision.

Need a good overview of key Business and Financial statements? Look no further. This book is clear, concise, and precise. Great for people just getting their feet wet in the finance world or for those who need a refresher.

This book is great for letting toddlers know what it is like to fly on an airplane, whether it is in preparation for their first flight, reminiscence of previous flights, or just for their imagination.

The illustrations are clear and the story is simple. The text is presented in a very clear and large typeface that beginning readers should find quite easy to sound through. The things that are important to a young child are emphasized, such as finding a seat and getting a meal--and the teddy bear is a prominant character that my son really seems to like.

It may not be a great piece of literature, but it is a very enjoyable little book!

I read this book to my toddler who loved the pictiures and the sounds of the words. The story is cute, simple and helps explain to your toddler that learning to swim can be a scary adventure at first but when you get used to the water, watch out! My toddler loved it! (but then again, he loves water, too!)

Great for learning in the car. Sometimes the speakers go a bit fast, but it was much more enjoyable than grammar drills. I wish there was a level 2 set I could buy!

Written as a text book for non economists studying environmental management it sets itself the task of providing readers with an understanding of what economics has to contribute to environmental assessment and decision-making. In this regard it acquits itself well. Introductory chapters explain the basic concepts used by economists to describe and deal with environmental problems. Readers are exposed to concepts of supply and demand, externalities and property rights with reference to environmental problems. The authors skilfully avoid making the explanation of economic concepts too technical or overwhelming for non specialist readers by using familiar environmental issues to illustrate the concepts. At times some of the examples used seem almost trivial, but these are linked to more substantive problems as the text progresses. Thereafter the emphasis of the text is very much on decision tools and comparative analysis of policy and control measures. This is a sensible approach given the target audience, and of particular merit is the clarity with which discounting and benefit cost analysis are handled. Throughout the approach taken is that the analysis should make sense on an intuitive level as well as theoretical and this sometimes results in overly long explanations of some concepts. More of the excellent, clear diagrams would have been welcome, and improvements could be made in the layout and presentation in a publication with a larger print run. The final chapter contains seven well chosen examples of environmental economics at work in practice. Each example issue is described, the economic technique used is explained and the analysis presented. The examples used highlight the power of economics in understanding familiar types of problems, and illuminatingly offer hints on the limitations of the techniques employed. This approach is sure to be appreciated by the target audience, because while it emphasises the usefulness of economic analysis it also highlights the need for it to be employed in conjunction with other decision tools (an insight all too frequently lost on some environmental economists).

With any text book there are always limits to what can and cannot be included, it would for example have been interesting to include discussion of extraction of non renewable resources. Consideration of some of the key international policy debates could also have been included (perhaps as an additional final chapter). Issues such as climate change and the "limits to growth", spring to mind as being relevant to the target audience.

A further group of readers not envisaged by the authors, who could profit from use of the text are the increasing number of academics from engineering, science and business studies disciplines who encounter economics in pursuing their research interests in environmental policy. It won't make them economists, but it will help them to understand the basis on which economic debate is being conducted.