Most Popular Books by Michael Nichols

Depicts a man''s exploration of the landscape, history, and toponymy of Hell Gate, a notorious stretch of water in New York City''s East River. Part history and part memoir, Hell Gate tells of a man''s excursions along and through Hell Gate, a narrow stretch of water in New York City''s East River, notorious for dangerous currents, shipwrecks, and its melancholic islands and rocks. Drawn to the area by his fascination with its name-from the Dutch Hellegat, translated into English as both "bright passage" and "hellhole"-what begins as a set of casual walks for Michael Nichols becomes an exploration of landscape and history as he traces these idyllic and hellish images in an attempt to discover Hell Gate''s hidden character and the meaning of its elusive name. Using a loosely constructed set of sketches organized as a kind of tour along the edge of the river and then from a rowboat in the river, Nichols describes scenes and events as they present themselves, mixing history and lore with contemporary scenes.

This concise guide helps educators understand the diverse religious practices that shape students’ school and home lives. Using an encyclopedia-like structure, the authors provide short histories and other essential information on a wide variety of religions as well as atheist practices. Each chapter covers origins, beliefs, practices, and common misunderstandings and stereotypes, as well as key holidays, religious dress, and dietary restrictions that can be accommodated in school. This book will help educators avoid stumbling over stereotypes so they can better engage students and their families and foster culturally responsive classrooms. Teachers of all grade levels will come away feeling more confident about identifying areas of cultural and religious practice where support for your students may be needed. You will also have the tools to recognize the diversity of religious and cultural practices that students bring to the classroom, and to see that unfamiliar religious and cultural practices are assets to be cultivated and not signs of deficiency.

A pictorial essay; more than 100 full color photos

Describes the gorillas in the African jungle and facts about the gorillas.

Two leading experts reveal the key concepts and techniques behind Six Sigma Process Management Six Sigma Process Management (SSPM) is a structured set of tools and techniques to help executives and teams continually address their customers'' expectations. What Is Six Sigma Process Management? explains the SSPM methodology, helping business leaders determine which efforts will most positively impact on their customers, employees, and shareholders. SSPM provides a system that guides leaders on what to improve first and how to establish a portfolio of the best improvement efforts in their business. The book also offers: Insights on process management, including identifying critical customer process metrics Guidelines to improve customer satisfaction by identifying customer-seen failures Ways to enhance overall business improvement strategy Insights on how future SSPM developments can address modern business challenges

THREE WORLD-CLASS MANAGEMENT METHODS. ONE COMPREHENSIVE RESOURCE. Finally, top executives across the global financial services industry are catching on-and catching up-to what the world''s most successful corporations have known for more than a decade: The performance improvement principles of Six Sigma, Lean, and Process Management can be applied to all aspects of any company''s operations-with remarkable results. If you want to take advantage of these proven, performance-enhancing methods, tools, and techniques, this reference helps you to use Six Sigma and other tools in a wide range of financial service applications: commercial or savings banks, diversified financials, securities, insurance firms, and more. Six Sigma for Financial Services delivers a complete and groundbreaking model specifically for financial services created by two experts of Six Sigma deployment and Process Management. Clear, concise, and comprehensive, this hands-on guide features actual experiences from frontline managers and executives in financial services firms all around the world. You''ll see, up close and personal, how they used Six Sigma to illustrate key points and achieve optimal performance in their companies. You''ll learn firsthand why business process excellence is crucial for success in an increasingly competitive, mission-critical industry. Using Lean, Six Sigma, and other process tools, you''ll be able to run leaner and more efficiently, and provide improved service with the best possible returns.