Reviews (3)

Athena Unbound
I read this book with tremendous interest. The stories it contains resonated in me or seemed to fit friends and colleagues. I have given Athena Unbound to family members upon graduation (from engineering school) and to my own women Chemistry students for graduation. I think it is important for my students to know what problems may lie before them and how they may be side-stepped. This book does a great job of outlining what these problems may be. Science is still a man's world. Forewarned is forearmed!

More like a research paper than a book
I picked this book for my engineering ethics class thinking how great it would be to read about the experience of other females in engineering. To my dismay the book was slow and repetitive. The books studies white American women in science. The data through out the book is presented in a rough research paper like format. This is not a peasant to read book. If you can identify with white American women in the scientific field, then read this book. Otherwise the focus of this book is too narrow and the authors of the book does not present any practical solutions to the problems encountered by women in the scientific field.

Great Introduction to Subject
This book is one of the best books I have read on the subject of women in science. It will appeal to the general public, who tire quickly of statistic upon statistic. Instead, this book gives a broad overview of the gender issues surrounding science and approached to resolve these issues. Should be required reading in any gender or science history class, I think, though the focus is on contemporary issues not historical documentation. ... Read more

Book Description

This riveting work of investigative reporting and history exposes classified government projects to build gravity-defying aircraft--which have an uncanny resemblance to flying saucers.

The atomic bomb was not the only project to occupy government scientists in the 1940s.Antigravity technology, originally spearheaded by scientists in Nazi Germany, was another high priority, one that still may be in effect today.Now for the first time, a reporter with an unprecedented access to key sources in the intelligence and military communities reveals suppressed evidence that tells the story of a quest for a discovery that could prove as powerful as the A-bomb.

The Hunt for Zero Point explores the scientific speculation that a "zero point" of gravity exists in the universe and can be replicated here on Earth.The pressure to be the first nation to harness gravity is immense, as it means having the ability to build military planes of unlimited speed and range, along with the most deadly weaponry the world has ever seen.The ideal shape for a gravity-defying vehicle happens to be a perfect disk, making antigravity tests a possible explanation for the numerous UFO sightings of the past 50 years.

Chronicling the origins of antigravity research in the world's most advanced research facility, which was operated by the Third Reich during World War II, The Hunt for Zero Point traces U.S. involvement in the project, beginning with the recruitment of former Nazi scientists after the war.Drawn from interviews with those involved with the research and who visited labs in Europe and the United States, The Hunt for Zero Point journeys to the heart of the twentieth century's most puzzling unexplained phenomena. ... Read more

Reviews (49)

Very entertaining
If you enjoy "X Files", "Roswell", even "Star Trek" for the entertainment value (as I do) you will probably like this book. If you are a passionate believer, or disbeliever, you won't. In "The Hunt for Zero Point" Nick Cook has crafted a very readable, entertaining novel around a subject for which there is little hard evidence, historical or current. And in a field which is rife with conspiracy theories and theorists he manages to underplay this aspect - as a respectable journalist should.

My father-in-law turned me on to this book. He is a taciturn fellow; his comment to me was "there is not a lot here, but you might enjoy it." He was right on both counts, and my guess is he should know. He was an electrical engineer, drafted into the Army during WWII, worked for ARPA, was posted to Germany towards the end of hostilities to help "clean up" after the Wehrmacht, and then went back to DARPA until he retired as a full colonel. Perhaps unsurprisingly, both of his sons work for large defense contractors managing "confidential" engineering projects.

So, regarding that conspiracy theory stuff? Hey, humans hide things from each other - you aren't telling your friends that you dress up in a tutu, suck your thumb and cry while your spouse spanks you, are you? We have our reasons. Our governments have their reasons (security) and our industries do too (to protect revenue).

Imagine trillions of dollars invested in a world-wide infrastructure, millions of people directly employed and many millions more indirectly, large profits and tax revenue generated, and maybe even a belief in the manifest destiny of humankind to fully utilize the resources that God has provided. Along comes a technology that will render the infrastructure obsolete, put all those people out of work, and destroy the profits and tax revenue - overnight. What do you do? You sit on the new technology until the resources are depleted (or until the asteroid strike). That's not a conspiracy, that's just common sense.

Recommended. Buy this book, and enjoy it. Then get on the web and find out that maybe it is not all smoke after all.

Great Read!
This book is great example of someone writing with a passion for searching for the truth. Well documented, the author takes us back to the early days of rocket development to search out if indeed we truly have man-made UFOs and the secret of anti-gravity.

HOW TO LEARN TO LOVE THE BOMB, PART II
How does one develop and exploit technology that can provide tunable "death rays," great anti-missile, anti-arty, anti-meteor defense, unlimited cheap energy, "flying saucer" spacetime travel, unlimited supplies of potable water, remediate nuclear pollution, enrich nuclear material, alter atomic structure, manipulate massenergy (i.e. increase or reduce gravitational/inertial mass, alter the weather, create seismic disturbances, "tractor beams," etc.), see through walls, and offer instantaneous, secure communications, among other things, but also provide a weapon that can sufficiently disrupt spacetime to destroy an entire planet? One needs a secret international, if not intra-galactic, extra-governmental military-industrial complex control group of some really stand-up guys. Or, let's at least hope they're "stand-up" since we don't exactly elect them. Let's also hope that all that power does not go to their heads! This book will help you understand a very small part of this story, namely what some of the sons of Adam figured out and built in massive underground complexes in Nazi-occupied Central Europe some six decades ago and how, with the help of the OSS at the fall of the Third Reich, a certain thoroughly evil genius for organization and intrigue named Hans Kammler, came west with the fruits of this technology after killing as many people who worked on it as possible. Think he might have taught us anything? If I have any fault with this book, it is that I could not help but suspect that the author, Nick Cook, editor of Janes Defence - Aviation, is not entirely the uninformed, naive, outside investigator that he protrays himself.

Not what you'd think
"Antigravity" is too restrictive a subtitle. It implies the author is focusing on gravity. In fact, he focuses on a search for technology that allows flight based on principles other than chemistry and aerodynamics. He chronicles his hunt for clues to alternative technologies hinted at in the footnotes of recent history. These technologies are based upon unusual phenomena, observed and partly tamed but not understood. He believes that significant advances were made in WWII Germany and continue to be developed today in "black" government programs. There are many intriguing hints of the existence of this technology and its direction, but the description of theoretical possibilities such as "zero point energy" seem only uninformed speculation. The author is severely hampered by a lack of technical training or mindset. Yet, this is an interesting tale with lots of diverse threads woven into an intriguing picture.

In and Out of the Shadows
In this shadowy world of antigravity, there is deliberate deception and false stories pointing to UFO's, and then ridiculing that possibility by others. People are whipped around by propaganda worthy of "1984". Nick Cook writes an excellent undercover book in The Hunt for Zero Point, but I am left wondering if he is participating in truth-telling, or deception, or both? It's well written, intriguing, and I cannot see any reason why anyone wouldn't like this book. But....at the end, is it true? My opinion is that antigravity is a deep black program and a lot of UFO sightings are sightings of already flying disc craft of human origin. ... Read more

Book Description

Twenty five years ago, it didn't exist. Today, twenty million people worldwide are surfing the Net. Where Wizards Stay Up Late is the exciting story of the pioneers responsible for creating the most talked about, most influential, and most far-reaching communications breakthrough since the invention of the telephone.

In the 1960's, when computers where regarded as mere giant calculators, J.C.R. Licklider at MIT saw them as the ultimate communications devices. With Defense Department funds, he and a band of visionary computer whizzes began work on a nationwide, interlocking network of computers. Taking readers behind the scenes, Where Wizards Stay Up Late captures the hard work, genius, and happy accidents of their daring, stunningly successful venture. ... Read more

Reviews (47)

Great intro. to the Internet,
I'm reading a series of technology-history books at the moment, this one, 'The Triumph of Ethernet' and 'how the Web was born'. This is definitely the place to start - a clear, fast paced tale of the various characters behind networked computers in late 1960's and 70's. Essentially this book describes the origin of human computer interfacing which became networking theory in the North East United States in the late 1950's and '60s.
The first computer network was called ARPANET, an outcome of inspired technology-development policy from ARPA -the Advanced Research Projects Agency, a part of the Defense Dept. The story is laid out chronologically without too much techspeak, and brings up a number of questions.
One question that seemed clearer to me at the end of the book was that ARPANET was the first mover towards internetworked computers, but from the story it is clear that it was a series of hardware computers which acted as 'routers' of information and that the heartbeat of the internet, as we have come to know it, is the communications protocol [called TCP/IP, specified by Vint Cerf, among others] which allowed the various messages to be interpreted by the different computers. TCP/IP and Cerf are almost incidental to this book, which is a pity.
Other topics covered are the initiation and development of E-mail and how the non-hierarchical, informal communications process among academics came to be the spirit of communications in the internet as a whole - something which is not altogether obvious from its origins in the Defense Dept. For me, the other big revelation was the speed of the adoption of the internet (even in days before the World Wide Web) and how the originators of the ARPANET were happy to allow it to be made obsolete by technological development. No one mentioned in this book seemed to want to (or know how to) commericialize the technology which they were working so feverishly to implement.
For those of a technical persuasion there are plenty of references to the various papers which moved the various technologies forward. This book is a great first taste for those who want to dip into the subject, gives a realistic description of the 'wizards' who had the weird and wacky ideas which we now rely on , and the text includes enough 'beef' to indicate how to dig deeper into the detail.

Enthralling History of the Internet's Origin
This book gives you the complete story behind the conception and birth of the internet. The story focuses on the work done by BBN to pioneer and develop all of the protocols and designs that are the internet. The book does a good job of laying the foundation of where the state of computing was when these initial developments were being made and what outside social and economic trends effected and encouraged the internet's development. The authors do a very good job of focusing on the personalities, anecdotes and larger issues without getting bogged down in minutiae. At 265 pages, the book is packed and makes for a very quick read. The writing style of Ms. Hafner and Mr. Lyon is outstanding, which greatly increases the quality of the book.

There are some very interesting aspects of the development that are related. I was very interested in the origins of BBN, their background in acoustics, and the zeal with which they pursued the original DARPA contract. Of equal interest was the method in which the teams were managed, and the way that the development was not pursued with large teams and brute force, but rather with smaller teams that were headed by the best possible people and given all of the resources that they needed. The creation of the internet is an awe-inspiring event, and the text offers several subtle management lessons that are too important to be overlooked. The book also does a splendid job of showing some of the theory that was used in the development of the necessary software and how the developers did such a good job of bridging theory and practical engineering development. In this light the book does a much better job discussing theory than two other recent books on the history of the Computer, "Engines of the Mind" by Shurkin and "Computer" by Campbell-Kelly and Aspray. These are just some of the interesting stories told, the whole text is packed cover to cover with similar stories.

I highly recommend this book.

Great book on the history of the internet
This was an excellent account of how the internet was created and how both ARPA and distributed networking has shaped what we use now everyday.. This book provided an excellent account of what the founders of the internet had to deal with in order to design what we have today..

This is a great read and provides a great reference for all who use and depend on the internet...

A good book about the history of the net
This book tells about how the Internet as we know it today has come into existence.

In February 1966 Bob Taylor who was employed by the Advanced Research Project Agency located in the Pentagon, was in charge of three non-networked computer terminals, each terminal running a different operating system. Communications between the terminals was at that point in time impossible. Taylor set out to explore a way to get the three computers to talk to each other.

The political climate at the time was such that the Russians have launched sputnik into space (1957). President Eisenhower began ARPA as a research and development agency to rival the Soviet's advances in technology.

ARPA's mission was to find a way for (government-sensitive) information withstand an attack (from the Soviets) on the Pentagon.

Paul Baran joined ARPA. He was working on a way "to build communications structures whose surviving components could continue to function as a cohesive entity if the other pieces were destroyed."

Baran diagramed 3 kinds of networks in a paper he wrote. The three networks were, centralized, de-centralized and distributed.

Baran had another idea. To send information over the network, he suggested that the messages themselves be fractured. This was formulated into packet-switching.

Special computers had to be constructed in order to uses packet-switching. The software form these computers was build by a company called BBN. The hardware of the machines known as IMPs was built by Honeywell.

In the beginning there were four nodes on the network. Over time the amount of nodes grew to 115 - until senstive government nodes claimed their own network, MIILNET.

Through funding, the National Science Foundation helped get many more colleges and universities on the network.

MOST EXCELLENT FOR NON-WONKS
Lots of information is conveyed with excellent editing making this book a very fast read. But AT&T's 6-year opposition to distributed processing is as appropriately treated -- without comment -- as the telegram sent by Senator Edward Kennedy's office to Boston-based BBN Corportation when the latter landed ARPA's contract for the Interface Message Processor: "Congratulations on your contract to build the Interfaith Message Processor."

This book's a beauty. ... Read more

Amazon.com

In the mid-1860s, after countless centuries of bearing the fruit that would become wine, French grapevines began to wither and die in ever increasing numbers and no one knew why. It started in southeastern France, in the Rhone Valley, as Christy Campbell tells the tale in his masterful The Botanist and the Vintner. Within 30 years the inexorable rolling disaster that was the phylloxera infestation had reached into every nook and cranny of France's wine making regions, destroying nearly all. Everywhere the wine grape grew--England, Spain, Italy, Germany, Eastern Europe, and even Australia--phylloxera appeared and took no prisoners. Except for American grape vines. The little bug didn't seem to have much taste for the skunky wines of native American grapes.

Christy Campbell, British journalist and, if The Botanist and the Vintner is any example, master storyteller, waltzes the reader into the middle of a fascinating tale of discovery and combat and never stops dancing. The book reads like a detective novel, a page-turner you can't put down. And it's about a bug, phylloxera, a root-sucking aphid that absolutely wiped clean the grand vineyards of France and thrived in defiance of both peasant remedy and all that "modern" science could bring to bear.

The modern science of the time, mind you, included debating Darwin's new theory of evolution. So it's really at the beginning of discovery and scientific technique. Despite a French government prize of 300,000 gold francs for a remedy, it took 30 years and more to pinpoint the reason for the vineyard die-off, and a practical way of defeating the organism. Grafting onto American rootstock – a rootstock that was the initial cause of the disaster – won the day though not the reward.

Campbell both begins and ends his tale in California's Napa Valley, where phylloxera once again raised its nasty little head toward the end of the 20th century, about 100 years after the struggle in France. It cost millions of dollars to bring the bug to bear. But this time part of the solution turned in a transgenic direction which is, of course, a threat with a completely different vintage. --Schuyler Ingle ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Victory Over the Aphids
Legendary French wines were almost wiped out when the vines that produced their grapes withered in the nineteenth century.The problem was one that has become familiar; our capacity to ship species from one continent to another has meant that we can have much more variety in our plants and animals, but it also endangers the homebodies that have to meet the newcomers.In _The Botanist and the Vintner: How Wine Was Saved for the World_ (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill), Christy Campbell writes that in the 1840s, trade in grape vines proceeded with "no barriers, no inspectorate, no concept of biological quarantine."The result was that tiny aphids with an extraordinary life cycle made their entry from America into France, and found the sap of the French grape vines exactly to their liking.Campbell has told the story of this disaster much like a mystery, and indeed, the vintners who saw their vines rapidly wither had no idea what was happening.A voracious caterpillar had threatened their plants two decades before, and a fungus had come shortly afterwards, but no one had seen a pattern of vine death like this one, with the leaves rapidly drying and curling up.There were only guesses about what was going on; too much rain, smoke in the air or iron in the soil from locomotives, and even emanations from telegraph lines were held to be responsible.Perhaps it was as simple as soil erosion or bad weather.No one knew.

The problem was an aphid usually called phylloxera.It took a long time to finger this particular culprit for many reasons, among which was that the tiny insect was not found on the dead vines.The simple explanation was that the aphids sucked all the sap they could out of the roots of the plant, and with nothing further to eat, moved on.Eventually, entomologists worked out the confusing life cycle of the aphid, which included several different forms of adults, some laying eggs on leaves, some laying eggs on the roots, and others having flying sexual forms.The aphids had been brought to France from America.The aphids and the American vines had long ago drawn a truce; aphids still infested the plants, but the plant developed mechanisms to keep alive through the assault, and the aphids settled in to feeding steadily off the living rather than killing the plants outright.The French vines had no such protection, so the aphids sucked them dry and moved on.Before finding an elegant solution to the problem, vintners simply had to pull up the dead vines and start growing something else, but that did not keep them from trying fanciful remedies, especially when the government offered a reward.Some proposed setting vials of holy water from Lourdes among the withering vines.Putting potatoes or frogs into the soil to draw away the poison had equal effect.Snail slime was championed, as were marching bands and a "beating wheelbarrow."Insecticides were useless.The problem had come from America, and the solution was from America as well.The solution was to use the root stocks of the American vines (vines which bore grapes the French considered vastly inferior), but to graft upon them the French vines which had been cultivated for centuries.

Campbell has told an enthralling story of science at work.It is a true success story, but attempts to controlnature seldom result in total or permanent success.The final section of his book reveals that outbreaks continue to occur and that the insects can develop new strains to which the old solution does not apply.Perhaps the rootstocks can be immunized.Perhaps, in these days of genetic modification, the genes from American vines that co-evolved with the phylloxera could be somehow inserted into the French varieties.GM wines are probably inevitable.The wine world used its wits to battle one pest successfully a century ago, but there will be others, and the story is not all told yet.
... Read more

Book Description

Movado is one of the world's most recognized watch brands. This lavishly illustrated book, certain to delight collectors, presents the evolution of Movado from its roots in the Jura Mountains in 1881 through more than a century of tradition and technological advancement. Over the years, Movado earned a reputation for pioneering the art of the wristwatches, high precision movements, and watches with complications, as well as water-resistant watches. Through 250 color illustrations, the book presents the most compelling designs introduced by Movado, many of which have become coveted collectors' items commanding high prices at worldwide auctions. Movado watches have been favored gifts for heads of state because they possess and reflect the best in precision technology. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

magical movado
The magical world of movado comes to light in this exceptional work on "the history of time". Very informative work with nice illustrations is all that the true movado enthusiast really needs. I strongly suggest that if you already own, or if you are considering a movado classic timepiece, that you pick up this book and spend some time on learning about the making of time. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

of course some people wouldn't like this book
i loved this book: it questions the idea of repeatability, which means that it questions the religion of science (as practiced by amateurs)and it shows you how language has served the impulse towards duplicity. the book also has a certain tongue-in-cheek wit about it, and that makes the ideas more interesting to read.

i can see where latour would make people nervous if they were fully invested in a point of view not fully understood. but, until the government takes down the bill of rights, diversity in thinking is still allowed and maybe even encouraged.

enjoy this book. it is fun.

Interesting, but hard to read
I'd like to think I'm not a dummy, but this was hard to read. It looks to me like the book was translated to English by someone who might know more about Anthropology than written communication. There were times when I felt that maybe it had been run through Babblefish.

Dissing of the translator aside, the author assumes the reader is completely knowlegable of all the apparently pretty divisions and differences in opinions between one group of scientists and another. Man I could care less, unless it leads to an advancement of a science, and I wasn't convinced. But maybe because I didn't care.

There were times where I felt that a greater service would have been done if the soap opera would have been skipped.

That said, the book contains some insightful and thought provoking ideas on how societies view each other and themselves. I found some concepts a powerful catalyst in my design efforts.

It only takes a French accent...
Anglophone readers probably don't realise that Latour meant this book as a tongue-in-cheek exercise to capture the postmodern social theory market in his own country by using a postmodern style to show what an illusion postmodernism has always been. But, as fate would have it, when someone sneezes in Paris, an Anglophone is felled with pneumonia. It's hard to believe that anyone with a firm grasp of the history of the last 250 years of Western culture would find this book anything more than a diversion worthy of maybe a couple of arguments in the pub. It's telling that historians of science, who are really the people who are in a position to hold Latour accountable to anything he says here, have given the book a chilly reception. Classify this one under 'Pseud's Corner'.

a great, new work; serious social theory for scientists too
For this reader, Bruno Latour's book is one of the most ambitious, original, and important reformulations of social theory since 1989. It is getting lots of attention among scholars, and deserves a wider public. The press reviews here don't do this book justice.

Latour, for those of you who don't know him, has been at the forefront of the emerging field of "science studies", the history and sociology of science, for the past 15 years. He's also a rather bizarre fellow. His "Aramis" is a book of real sociology that is told in the form of a novel, in which the metro car of a failed Parisian public transportation project becomes one of a series of narrators. In "We Have Never Been Modern," he conscisely summarizes the theoretical basis of his work, and stakes out ground that is genuinely new. The book should excite humanisitic academics, scientists, and intellectually adventurous people from all walks of life with a taste for theory.

The thesis -- the basis for the "we have never been modern" part -- is that the "great divide" between nature and human, subject and object, science and society, was never real. Instead, he says, this subject/object divide was the great dirty fiction of the "modern" world.

To give you the gist of the argument as briefly as possible: the separation of nature and human, that has marked Western intellectual life since the 17th century, allowed both science and the humanities to make their own claims for absolute truth. This divide was the basis for our image of "modern western man."

But these claims hid the fact that "hybrids" were springing up all the while. Modernity also spawned technological "quasi-objects" that blur the line between the natural and the human. The tremendous multiplication of these "quasi-objects" (Latour's neologism)in our times has finally forced us to the point where we are at a startling conclusion: the divorce of man from nature never really took place.

What we thought of as scientific Western man was never real. Latour wants us, the generation left with the consequences of this revelation, to exhume this past of hybridity, and seek out a new relationship between nature and culture. In short, he wants to both humanize science and render the humanities more scientific.

This brief bastardization does not do justice to the work. Latour elegantly and convincingly lays out his thesis, and the results are dazzling and compelling. He's also sharp and witty, and fans of the like of Baudrillard and Derrida will see their idols tossed about a bit.

On the other hand, the book is immensely ambitious in its theoretical claims, and has a tendency to pretend that complex and difficult ideas are obvious truth. One wonders at times if he is practicing the French intellectual's habit of making our heads spin for the sheer thrill of watching the confusion. But he's not, and most readers, I think, will finish the book that Latour is ultimately both a sensible man and a humane one.

As a graduate student in the humanities, I know that this book is getting a growing audience in academia. I hope that some non-academic visitors to amazon.com (especially science buffs who enjoy the likes of Steven Pinker and Daniel Dennet) will treat themselves to this intellectual adventure. It's a truly original book, not much over 100 pages, reasonably priced, and well worth the experience. ... Read more

Book Description

Whether playing at defending their own castle or simply chucking pumpkins over a fence, wannabe marauders and tinkerers will become fast acquainted with Ludgar, the War Wolf, Ill Neighbor, Cabulus, and the Wild Donkey-ancient artillery devices known commonly as catapults. Re-creating these simple yet sophisticated machines introduces fundamentals of math and physics using levers, force, torsion, tension, and traction. Instructions and diagrams illustrate how to build seven authentic working model catapults, including an early Greek ballista, a Roman onager, and the apex of catapult technology, the English trebuchet. Additional projects include learning how to lash and make rope and how to construct and use a hand sling and a staff sling. The colorful history of siege warfare is explored through the stories of Alexander the Great and his battle of Tyre; Saladin, Richard the Lionheart, and the Third Crusade; pirate-turned-soldier John Crabbe and his ship-mounted catapults; and Edward I of England and his battle against the Scots at Stirling Castle. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Great Book for those with a Backyard
I was really impressed with this book while sitting sipping a cup of coffee. Wondering to myself, how could I use this to have fun with my family if we lived in a space with, of all things, space.

This book not only shows how to make catapults of various types. It goes into the history of how the catapult was made or as it transformed throughout history. There are short vignettes about various historical subjects surrounding seizes throughout time and what types of catapults were used, what they looked like and how to build something like it using easy to but materials.

This is a fun book for the hobbyist who likes to tinker with things and how has a flair for fun projects (or projectiles for that matter.) I will buy this book when I get a place and I hope it sells for those who want to work with their kids on a fun project.

The Art of the Catapult is a fun romp....if you liked Lord of The Rings, you will like this book, putting catapults in perspective.

A note from the Author
Here is some additional information for prospective readers and buyers of Art of the Catapult, from the book's author.

This book has been written for readers aged 9 to adult, although younger readers will enjoy many of the projects if they have adult assistance.

Note: Adults will enjoy this book as well. As of the time this note is written, Amazon describes this book as written for readers aged 9 to 12. This is not correct, as adult readers will find it written for them as well.

The largest catapult project is a traction powered (human powered) catapult that can throw a water balloon or similar item a very long way! Most of the projects are somewhat smaller. Buy this book and enjoy throwing your weight around! ... Read more

Book Description

Dolls and Accessories of the 1950s contains over 590 color photographs of dolls made of hard plastic and vinyl, and accessories produced for these dolls during the 1950s. Company products pictured include those made by Alexander, American Character, Artisan, Cosmopolitan, Effanbee, Horsman, Ideal, Mary Hoyer, Nancy Ann, Richwood, Terri Lee, Vogue, and many other miscellaneous companies. In addition special sections feature personality, comic, cartoon, and advertising dolls. This book provides a more comprehensive overview of the doll products of the 1950s than any one book has ever done. Baby dolls, little girl dolls, teen dolls, and fashion dolls are all pictured. A price guide is also included. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Wonderful Book
This is a wonderful book about the fabulous dolls and accessories of the 1950s. It has lots of photos and complete descriptions and something for everyone. It is comprehensive and a "must" for collectors of this era- perfect for research or simply enjoyment and a trip down memory lane. Well done! Keep the books coming!

Excellent Resource Guide
I bought this book to match the clothes that I buy at garage sales and auctions to the dolls that I own and to make sure that any dolls I'm considering are dressed in their original clothes,and I was not dissapointed.With over 500 color pictures and pictures of whole catalogue pages I have found this book to be the best in my library.Value guides are given in the description paragraph not forcing the reader to turn to a back page and search for a corresponding plate number,which I personally find annoying.I would highly recommend this book to any collector of 50' dolls. ... Read more

Book Description

An illustrated history of American innovators--some well known, some unknown, and all fascinating-- by the author of the bestselling The American Century. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Norman Polmar and Thomas Allen describe espionage as the world's second-oldest profession, right behind prostitution. They say the two trades share much of the same allure: "Money, secrecy, sex, great public interest, and people's reputations--or lack thereof--are involved in both professions." Spies are probably the objects of greater curiosity, given their proximity to the corridors of power. And now Polmar and Allen have come up with a compendium that informs on the informers, from "A-2" (the intelligence staff of the U.S. Army Air Corps) to "Zelle, Margaretha" (Mata Hari's real name). More than 2,000 entries deliver the scoop on agencies, operations, jargon, technology, and even such fictional figures as James Bond. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Politically correct history
This book was written with the cooperation of the establishment. As a result it is somewhat biased. For instance we are not told in the article about Angelton that he was kicked out for being a failure at his job. During the last 10 years of his career, every Soviet defector that he claimed was genuine was a Soviet plant. Every one he claimed was a plant was genuine. After he was fired his safe was cut open and found to contain many year old evidence that he did not act on but when followed up was used to catch several Soviet spies.
The article on Agee, who was a despicable person, falsely claims that he was the one who first revealed the identity of the Athens CIA head of station. Several heads of station had lived in the same house. Every taxi driver knew the identity. The house was the worst possible choice for a CIA person to live in. It was at the end of a dead end street and was so secluded that any illegal activities such as kidnapping or murder would go un-witnessed by others.

The author gives misleading information to the effect that once the contents of a classified photo appear in some other public photo the classified photo should be declassified. This would allow the method of taking the photo to be deduced and future photos of equipment using that method would be blocked.

Encyclopedia IS the proper title
A book of information of people, places, code names, etc. relating to spying, including very early items with descriptions and history. A query once found, leads to cross references and provokes further reading in this book, and into other books. Names well known people and their contribution to spying, and the contribution of private citizens also. Each item is well written and full of unexpected, details, history, and information. Presents code names and describes the activity for which the code was used. Very useful for anyone interested in spies and spying preceeding war time, in war time, and in peace time also.

Book Review: Spy Book Encyc.
An amusing read by this outsider observer of the community. I showed this book to an ex-member of the community and they "asked the right question." "Does it define the Intelligence Cycle?"

The one major short coming (4.5 stars) is that it could have said more about the role of Canada and the CSE and their other units. These have had documentation and this is one of those areas where the Web excells.

The Best Spy Book Ever
I had checked it out in a library and I couldn't put it down. I think it is the best spy book ever, but don't take my word for it, check it out.

Could Have Beenn Better With More Facts.
I cannot believe two Military historians wrote a reference book leaving out importnat birthdates, places and regions where most of the spys they cited grew up. For example, Claire George an outstanding American was cited, but no birthdates, hometown, educational background or region he came from was even listed, yet they claim they are historians. I know they may try to defend their poor research by saying spies hide their backgrounds but most of this information is readily available from easy sources. Consequently, I question the accuracy, research and details of a book that could have been great, but is only good for as a children's guide to Espionage from ages 10 through 14. Sorry, I expected more and want a discount for what I paid. ... Read more

Book Description

How were Chinese pots made, glazed and fired? Why did China discover porcelain more than 1,000 years before the West? What are the effects of China's influence on world ceramics? These questions (and many more) are answered in this history of Chinese ceramic technology, from the late Stone Age to the twenty-first century AD. The non-specialist reader will appreciate its unique coverage of research materials originally published in several languages. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

A Masterful Account of Sikh Military Tradition
This one should belong in the library of all Sikhs and historians of the Indian Subcontinent.
A beautifully documented and illustrated piece of work.
Madra's incredible effort provides a unique insight as to why the British held the military prowess of the Sikhs in such high-regard.

God Bless toS. AmandeepSingh Madraand Paramjeet Singh
First of all I would say, God Bless S. Amandeep Singh Madra , who has done this great job for the coming sikh generation,the generation born in abroad and does not know about sikh's pride. Great God bless these two gentlemen for that they just clear the dust from the sikh braverly and showed the new generation by publishing this book, who ever forgott the sikhs culture and pride. I might order this book in large quantity to distribute in each gurudwara, this is Surinderpal Singh , USA

picture perfect on sikhs
this book took my breath away and made me feel blessed that i am a sikh as well and that i belong to such a wonderful faith. the pictures of the book are rare and extremely well presented, with the design of the book adding on to it's high rating that i give it points which fall way above the options. a great book for coming generations to revere and find inspiration and sikh pride from. buy it for your kids or for your grandchildren. theyare the inheritors of this great tradition that the sikhs are today.

Good review of Sikh military history
I liked the coverage of the Sikh military tradition ,particularly under British rule. I thought an opportunity had been lost to explain the Genocide of Sikhs under Indian rule in the book. More than 250,000 Sikhshave been killed in India since 1984 ,when the Golden Temple was attackedby Indian troops.

Many of the Sikhs (men, woman,children) gave theirlives for the Sikh nation,as happened has happened before in Sikh history

Excellent, Historical Documentation
I loved this book.It brought tears to my eyes. I loved how it showed the essence of a true warrior saint.The pictures are so beautiful and each one tells a story.My favorite one was the soldiers marching behind theGuru. ... Read more

Book Description

The authors, widely known for their contributions to airplane design and development, have captured both the technological progress and the excitement of this important facet of aviation. This updated edition includes new developments in propulsion-controlled aircraft, fly-by-wire technology, redundancy management, applications, and safety. It is profusely illustrated with photographs and figures, and includes brief biographies of noted stability and control figures along with a core bibliography. ... Read more

Book Description

Hailed as the Thomas Edison and Henry Ford of Silicon Valley, Robert Noyce was a brilliant inventor, a leading entrepreneur, and a daring risk taker who piloted his own jets and skied mountains accessible only by helicopter.Now, in The Man Behind the Microchip, Leslie Berlin captures not only this colorful individual but also the vibrant interplay of technology, business, money, politics, and culture that defines Silicon Valley.Here is the life of a giant of the high-tech industry, the co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel who co-invented the integrated circuit, the electronic heart of every modern computer, automobile, cellular telephone, advanced weapon, and video game. With access to never-before-seen documents, Berlin paints a fascinating portrait of Noyce: he was an ambitious and intensely competitive multimillionaire who exuded a "just folks" sort of charm, a Midwestern preacher's son who rejected organized religion but would counsel his employees to "go off and do something wonderful," a man who never looked back and sometimes paid a price for it.In addition, this vivid narrative sheds light on Noyce's friends and associates, including some of the best-known managers, venture capitalists, and creative minds in Silicon Valley.Berlin draws upon interviews with dozens of key players in modern American business--including Andy Grove, Steve Jobs, Gordon Moore, and Warren Buffett; their recollections of Noyce give readers a privileged, first-hand look inside the dynamic world of high-tech entrepreneurship.A modern American success story, The Man Behind the Microchip illuminates the triumphs and setbacks of one of the most important inventors and entrepreneurs of our time. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (21)

The best and MOST ACCURATE book on the subject!
When I first picked up David West Reynolds' APOLLO: The Epic Journey To The Moon, the first thing I did was turn to the index to seek out "Disney, Walt" and "von Braun, Wernher," two names that greatly influenced my childhood (had "Rogers, Roy" been a space cowboy, I'd've looked him up too). Déjà vu: I was instantly taken back to the past looking toward the future with a 10-year-old's wide-eyed awe and wonderment. That's what this amazing book instills in the reader: that same sort of wonder and expectation, as if the Apollo missions were about to lift off tomorrow, yet providing a jolt to the memory that causes you to gasp, "Omigod, I remember that!"

Reynolds writes about the first of three "sci-fi" segments of ABC-TV's Disneyland that aired on March 9, 1955: "Man In Space explained the challenges that would face humans traveling into space and detailed von Braun's concepts for a reusable space shuttle, dramatizing one of its missions and ending with a spectacular night landing...It was watched by an audience of 100 million. [It] was so popular and so provocative...that President Eisenhower [till then, a doubting Thomas] called Disney to order a copy for review by his staff and the Pentagon. It felt to many like a new age was just around the corner."
Man And The Moon, which was televised the following year, was "a preview of what would become the real Apollo 8...portrayed realistically with actors and included a mysterious sighting of unexplained lights on the surface of the Moon, strangely prefiguring events that would occur during the Apollo missions."

At 36, Dr. Reynolds, who has published scholarly articles on archaeology and ancient exploration, also authored the New York Times #1 bestseller Star Wars: Episode 1, The Visual Dictionary, among other books. However, he is truly at the top of his space game here. This is fascinating stuff, and Reynolds writes in a clear, concise, and entertaining style that makes even technophobes like yours truly easily comprehend one of the most spectacular - and complex -- scientific and historical achievements of the last century.

With a "you are there" Foreword by Apollo 7's Mission Commander Wally Schirra, and the cooperation of NASA and the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, the reader can be assured of the accuracy of the detailed facts and figures Reynolds presents.

Richly illustrated with some rare and never-before-seen photos, it also includes many new rocket cutaways, and custom-keyed maps and panoramas that put you more lucidly in the lunar landscape.

Photographed for the first time is the famous memo to LBJ in which JFK asks, "Do we have a chance of beating the Soviets by putting a laboratory in space, or by a trip around the moon, or by a rocket to land on the moon, or by a rocket to go to the moon and back with a man?"

(Amusing to think that nowadays, American multimillionaires like 60-year-old money manager Dennis Tito and 23-year-old Lance Bass of the boy band N'Sync so casually shell out [$]million apiece to the Russians for the privilege of becoming Soyuz cosmonauts.)

However, this merely scratches the surface of the moon, for Reynolds pilots us to an ethereal kind of Tomorrowland in his Jules Vernesque conclusion: "We will one day surpass the achievement of Apollo. In reaching beyond it, we will at last fulfill its promise, a promise that lies waiting today, waiting for anyone to look up at the glow of the night sky, a promise recorded in the footprints on the Moon."

It is the profoundly inspiring Afterword by Gene Cernan, Mission Commander of Apollo 17, which brilliantly encapsulates Reynolds' comprehensive tome.

"One cannot behold all the lands and seas of the Earth in a single glance and remain unchanged by the experience," says Cernan. "Returning to Earth from the Moon poses the challenge of finding a perspective within yourself that can encompass what has happened to you, that can accommodate the matters of ordinary life as well as the memory of having looked into the endlessness of space and time from another world. I once stood upon the dust of the Moon and looked up, struggling to comprehend the enormity of the message that we found in Apollo. All that is here. In this book..."

No way, no how, could I have said it better.

Spiffy!
There are a number of books on the American Apollo Moon program,
most prominently Andrew Chaikin's excellent A MAN ON THE MOON, and so
the question that David West Reynolds' APOLLO: THE EPIC JOURNEY TO THE
MOON poses is whether another book on the subject really brings
anything to the party.

The answer is YES, in that Reynolds is taking a somewhat different
approach to the subject. Chaikin's book is relatively long and
detailed, but has no illustrations and is fairly nontechnical.
Reynolds' book is substantially shorter, heavily illustrated, and has
a much more technical bent.

All three of these virtues make Reynold's book probably a better bet
for the casual reader, someone who is interested in the Moon flights
but would be perfectly happy with a tidy summing up, focusing in
reasonable detail on the flights themselves but giving a fairly brief
discussion of the background.

Even the more serious reader will find the book's layout and
illustrations outstanding. It's crammed full of pretty pictures and
paintings, ranging from the Chesley Bonestell artwork of the
1950s Colliers / Disney "space program" to fine NASA photography of
the Moon missions. Serious readers may also find the technical
"sidebars" on items such as the "Moon buggy" and unfulfilled advanced
Apollo missions to have some very interesting information in them.

Those who would want to understand the broader scope of the Apollo
program, including its political background, would probably prefer
Chaikin's A MAN ON THE MOON. Reynolds' tends to ignore the politics
behind the Moon program, which in itself could be regarded as a
rational decision to focus on some things and ignore others.

Unfortunately, to get to the most negative comments I can make about
Reynolds' book, the author occasionally does get on a soapbox, doing a
little flag-waving and sometimes playing "eager young space cadet".
A bit of patriotism is fine, of course, but in a few places I felt
as though I was reading the text with someone playing STARS & STRIPES
FOREVER on a kazoo in the background. As far as being a space
cadet goes ... well, yes, I admire the astronauts and believe that
Werner von Braun was a remarkable man in many ways, but the astronauts
were not Boy Scouts, and much more to the point, von Braun was noted
for his arrogance as well as brilliance, and he'd got his hands dirty
working for the Nazis in a way that would never quite come clean.

The soapbox exercises are infrequent and can be ignored. This is
fortunate, because APOLLO: THE EPIC JOURNEY TO THE MOON is otherwise
a creditable piece of work. I give it four stars and not five to
emphasize that not everyone might want to buy this book. Serious
students of the space program might want something more substantial.
However, I think almost anybody would like to page through such a
pretty book, and casual readers should find it both interesting and
informative. I think adolescents would be particularly taken with it.

I did find one small bug in the book: a picture that is supposed to
be of the launch of the first Earth satellite, Sputnik I, is actually
of a Soviet manned space launch, a Vostok or some later capsule.
This is not a killer bug by any means, just listing it as a minor
correction.

One of the best non-fiction books I've ever read
I highly recommend this book, even if you're only remotely interested in the subject. It has everything from pictures to fold-out diagrams, special inserts on all the major points, etc. Just packed with cool stuff. And as for the text, I got chills just reading it. This should be standard reading in 11th Grade History, and those of us outside of a history class will still love every page. Great book.

Beautiful addtion to any collection!
Wonderful photos highlight this stunning edition with excellent production values. Very satisfying in every way.

Three Manners to Read and Value This Book
For Rick Husband, William McCool, Michael Anderson, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, and Ilan Ramon.

I read this book as a layperson not as an engineer, or someone who has an encyclopedic knowledge that an amateur can gain when an interest becomes a serious hobby, or a consuming subject for study. I was going to suggest there were only two ways to read this book but I finished the volume early Saturday morning several hours prior to the loss of the Columbia Shuttle and the 7 men and women she carried.

If this book contains errors about the size of a tank, or the function of a part, that is inexcusable. This book contains written endorsements from more than one Apollo Astronaut, and it would seem that if there is information that is going to be offered as fact it should be correct.

The book is a treasure to anyone who lived and experienced parts of the wonder that was The Apollo Program. This does not excuse the errors if they exist, but it is not reason enough to condemn the value of the book, or ridicule it as a picture book for children.

What quickly became apparent after the tragedy yesterday is how far out of touch the public has become with the men and women who perform these missions, gather knowledge, and do so in situations that contain a level of risk that few people would ever contemplate much less take. The Apollo astronauts, the Gemini astronauts, and the Mercury astronauts were men that we all knew by name. Movies have been made about the original Mercury 7, more recently a film about the miraculous team effort that snatched the crew of Apollo 13 from what should have been certain death was brought to the screen by Ron Howard and a host of wonderful actors including Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Gary Sinise, Bill Paxton, and Ed Harris to name only a few.

The Apollo Program was unprecedented, 400,000 people were required to put the program and vehicles together to place men on the Moon. But when the program was ended no money was budgeted to even save all the working documents it took to create Apollo. If we wanted to recreate Apollo the absurd situation is that we would have to do research and development all over again because the records were not properly archived. One of the greatest achievements of humans, and so much of the work is gone.

On January 27, 1967, Gus Grissom, Roger Chaffee, and Ed White died without leaving the ground, when the capsule of Apollo I burned them to death in a pure oxygen atmosphere which a short circuit ignited.

On January 28, 1986 the 7 Challenger astronauts died less than 75 seconds after launch. Michael Smith, Dick Scobee, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe were those persons willing to push the boundries of human exploration on that tragic day.
And then yesterday, 9 hours after January 2002 had ended, the men and women at the beginning of these comments lost their lives for reasons as yet unknown.

The Challenger 7 were eulogized by countless people, but on the day of their deaths one of the most eloquent speakers ever concluded his remarks as follows; The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honoured us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for the journey and waved goodbye and slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God. President Ronald Reagan ... Read more

Book Description

Amazon.com

You probably enjoy eating codfish, but reading about them? Mark Kurlansky has written a fabulous book--well worth your time--about a fish that probably has mattered more in human history than any other. The cod helped inspire the discovery and exploration of North America. It had a profound impact upon the economic development of New England and eastern Canada from the earliest times. Today, however, overfishing is a constant threat. Kurlansky sprinkles his well-written and occasionally humorous history with interesting asides on the possible origin of the word codpiece and dozens of fish recipes.Sometimes a book on an offbeat or neglected subject really makes the grade. This is one of them. ... Read more

Reviews (76)

A bitter ecological tale for our time
This is a fascinating book.

It's also very sad, because it illustrates the ability of modern people to almost unconsciously wipe out the natural resources of our planet. Codfish were once the "buffalo" of the oceans -- big, fat, useful and dumb. As one early explorer wrote, to catch cod all you need do is lower and bucket into the water and haul it back up full of fish. Sorta like buffalo in the days when passengers could shoot them from the windows of passing trains as a harmless sport intended solely to break the boredom of the trip.

Yes, this book is a bitter ecological tale for our time.

It is also a wonderful history of a marvelous fish. Kurlansky obviously had fun writing it, and his love of cod shows in the comfortable style of his writing. He delves into word origins for the different ways used to describe cod, and he plays with the history of a dozen or so nations to illustrate the impact one fish had on entire peoples. Plus, he includes dozens of recipes by which cod was cooked for generations.

But he also explains why such an international treasure has almost vanished.

"Whatever steps are taken, one of the greatest obstacles to restoring cod stocks off Newfoundland is an almost pathological collective denial of what has happened," Kurlansky writes near the end of the book. "Newfoundlanders seem prepared to believe anything other than they have killed off nature's bounty."

What happened? Kurlansky writes that "One Canadian journalist published an article pointing out that the cod disappeared from Newfoundland at about the same time that stocks started rebuilding in Norway.

"Clearly the northern stock had packed up and migrated to Norway," he adds. If this is the Canadian attitude, in one of the self-proclaimed best educated and wealthiest of nations, it's not hard to understand why and how Third World nations have environmental problems. My personal experience with a similar depletion is in the Sea of Cortez, where Mexican fishermen have taken about 20 years to just about exterminate the sharks.

Shrimp boats, based in Puerto Penasco, have likewise decimated the shrimp. Who's to blame? The United States, of course, because the Americans built dams on the Colorado River which prevents the river water from reaching the sea.

There's always someone else to blame.

As I said earlier, it's a sad book. Yet, it is an excellent one and perhaps one of the most appropriate to read in terms of what is fast happening to our marine life. Cod are invisible, not like cute furry little baby seals which so excited Europeans a few years ago when they saw how Canadians clubbed them to death to avoid marking the fur. If the future of our world depends on cute pictures on TV, then our future is truly in deplorable shape.

But, the fact this book exists and is written with elegance, style, wit and great insight, may persuade thick-headed politicians that even "invisible" wildlife deserves protection from our greed and ignorance. If not, and having known many politicians for many years I'm not optimistic, it is a beautiful elegy to a noble fish.

What happens when a native species disappears? Well, two centuries ago the US Southwest had some of the world's finest grasslands. Then came the Russian Thistle, an almost useless weed that choked out the grass. Now we celebrate this import in song, "See them tumbling along . . . . . the tumbling tumbleweeds."

It happens.

hungry for a lost fish
A purse-sized history of the cod fishery, from the Basques & vikings to the fishes' modern decimation by large scale bottom-dragging. The social & historical ramifications spawned (no pun intended) by the international quest for this fish are incredible. Kurlansky's book weaves historical accounts in choronological order with hundreds of years of recipes for preparing cod. Though the book was well-written, concise, and highly interesting, I found it oddly incongruous to read about the vast decimation of this species yet find myself hungry for the very same fish after reading the next page's recipe for it.

Perfect For Detail Junkies
Cod is not for every reader, reflecting as it does the author's deep interest in history, and how individual foods relate to history. What the book gives to thoughtful readers is true context along with its detail. Kurlansky drives home a real point: you cannot separate the fish from the men who risk and lose their lives to extract it from the sea, nor can the food be divorced from the dollars it represents. In culinary terms, I was inspired to start cooking with dried cod; it's the kind of thing you don't notice in your supermarket until something--this book in my case--sticks it into your consciousness with no going back. As a real "foodie" and an incurable history buff, I am thankful that writers like Kurlansky go to the trouble of applying their talents to subjects like this.

Food writer Elliot Essman's other reviews and food articles are available at www.stylegourmet.com

Interesting and informative , but ...
This book is another interesting and informative, but narrow subject history book of the type this author prefers to write. In some sections it poses as a cookbook. I was irritated by the amount of text actually devoted to Codfish recipes, when what I purchased was a historical type book . The author has a very good writing style. The book covers the early history of some cultures that took advantage of this bottom dwelling fish prized for its unique white meat. The Codfish affected these early cultures as it still does today, where regional and national economies are suffering from the impact of worldwide diminishing Codfish stocks in spite of some sporadic conservation measures.
This reader recommends ignoring the all too frequent codfish recipes interspersed with the good historical information. This book makes for a fine compact interesting history of man's relationship with the Codfish. Ignore the historical section and I suppose it would be a passable Codfish cookbook.

A Cod piece
Overall, I thought Cod to be an "ok" read. It's strongest points were the inclusion of historic references to cod, images, and recipes - a novel approach for a non-fiction work. I also found the stories of contemporary cod fishermen (who aren't allowed to fish!) quite compassionate and the history of Basque fishers-of-cod both enlightening and surprising.

However, Kurlansky was often repetitive with his cod anecdotes, and I found his writing style to be a bit cumbersome and slow. I'm a big fan of John McPhee's work, which exemplifies the essay as poetry, and I had hoped that Kurlansky might offer a new, strong voice in the non-fiction, natural history essay. I was a bit disappointed that the central text read much like an undergrad research paper. I do plan to read his recent book Salt because I find the subject premise intriguing.

If you like eating fish or fishing, are interested in how natural and human history intertwine, or are simply a fan of nature writing, I would recommend giving Cod a try. ... Read more