At last, this much anticipated book has been published and provides a much needed breath of fresh air. The Strategos Guide to Value Stream and Process Mapping has helpful tips on facilitating group VSM exercises and helps put VSM in the greater Lean context. With photos and examples of related Lean practices, the book focuses on implementing VSM, not just on drawing diagrams and graphs. This is the most comprehensive and practical book on the subject to date.

"I am not going to let my blindness build a brick wall around me. I'd give my eyes one hundred times again to have the chance to do what I have done, and what I can still do."- Brad Snyder speaking with First Lady Michelle ObamaOn the night Osama bin Laden was killed, US Navy Lieutenant Brad Snyder was serving in Afghanistan as an Explosive Ordnance Disposal officer with SEAL Team Ten. When he learned of SEAL Team Six's heroics across the Pakistani border, Brad was thankful. Still, he knew that his dangerous combat deployment would continue.Less than five months later, Brad was engulfed by darkness after a massive blast caused by an enemy improvised explosive device. Suddenly Brad was blind, with vivid dreams serving as painful nightly reminders of his sacrifice.Exactly one year after losing his sight, Brad heard thousands cheer as he stood on a podium in London. Incredibly, Brad had just won a gold medal in swimming at the 2012 Paralympic Games. Fire in My Eyes is the astonishing true story of a wounded veteran who refused to give up. Lieutenant Brad Snyder did not let blindness build a wall around him- through tenacity and courage, he tore it down.

In 1912, a group of young and ambitious bureaucrats and thought-leaders, disillusioned by the progress of change in the Taft Administration, transformed the house they shared into the capital's foremost political salon. Self-mockingly referred to as the "House of Truth," the row house was the residence of the young Felix Frankfurter and the aspiring journalist Walter Lippmann, and their guests included Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Louis Brandeis, Herbert Hoover, and sculptor Gutzon Borglum (later the creator of the Mount Rushmore monument). Weaving together the stories and intellectual trajectories of these figures Brad Snyder shows how the progress of their thinking about government and policy, shifted from a firm belief in progressivism-the belief that the government should protect its workers and regulate monopolies-into what we call liberalism, the belief that government can improve citizens' lives through legislation while still being prevented from abridging their civil liberties and eventually civil rights. This fascinating historical and biographical narrative reimagines and recreates the birth of the minimum wage, child-welfare laws, banking insurance, Social Security, and other programs that we now take for granted. In essence, the origins of the New Deal and American Liberalism can be traced to a row house in Dupont Circle.

"Facing the American Board of Surgery Certifying Exam is not merely taking another exam. Most surgeons are not exposed to the techniques of oral examinations or to the best methods to prepare for them. It is seemingly a game in which you have to ascertain the rules, but in reality it is no game. The stakes are high. Reading from sizeable textbooks, poorly-organized review books, and one-dimensional autobiographic example scenarios undeniably makes studying for this exam more stressful than fruitful. Knowing what is important and what is not is crucial when studying for this particular exam. The authors have learned how the challenges can be overcome; as a result, this book was written to include everything that you will need to successfully pass this critical exam. This guide provides pertinent pearls of wisdom quoted from others who have successfully taken the exam and includes: One hundred and forty-five subjects of content, Twenty-six bulleted descriptions of the most commonly probed surgical procedures, and, Sixty-nine of the most commonly asked subjects over the last ten years stressed with invaluable example scenarios that show how content and technique should be employed synergistically."

After the 1969 season, the St. Louis Cardinals traded their star center fielder, Curt Flood, to the Philadelphia Phillies, setting off a chain of events that would change professional sports forever. At the time there were no free agents, no no-trade clauses. When a player was traded, he had to report to his new team or retire. Unwilling to leave St. Louis and influenced by the civil rights movement, Flood chose to sue Major League Baseball for his freedom. His case reached the Supreme Court, where Flood ultimately lost. But by challenging the system, he created an atmosphere in which, just three years later, free agency became a reality. Flood's decision cost him his career, but as this dramatic chronicle makes clear, his influence on sports history puts him in a league with Jackie Robinson and Muhammad Ali.