Book Description
Can modern science tell us what happened to Amelia Earhart? The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) has spent fifteen years searching for the famous lost pilot using everything from archival research and archaeological survey to side-scan sonar and the analysis of radio wave propagation. In this spellbinding book, four of TIGHAR's scholars offer tantalizing evidence that the First Lady of the Air and her navigator Fred Noonan landed on an uninhabited tropical island but perished before they could be rescued. Do they have Amelia's shoe? Parts of her airplane? Are her bones tucked away in a hospital in Fiji? Come join their fascinating expedition and examine the evidence for yourself! The new paperback edition brings the search up to the present, including tantalizing evidence of campfires and charred bones found on remote Nikumaroro.
Customer Reviews:
"The Forensic Search for Amelia Earhart".......2007-09-04
"Amelia Earhart's Shoes: Is the Mystery Solved?", Udated 2004 Ed., Thomas F. King, et al., AltaMira Press, NY 2001, ISBN: 0-7591-0131-0, PB 374 pgs., plus 23 pg. Notes, 9 pg. Biblio., 20 pg. Index, & 104 B & W photos, illus. or maps., 6" x 9".
This is an academic work by a contingent of skilled scientific experts whose writings & basic investigative work was coordinated, in part & on behalf of TIGHAR (Int. Group of Historical Aircraft Recovery) & updated 2004. The 27 chapters describe a forensic approach to solve the mystery of aviatrix AE's disappearance enroute 2,223 miles to Howland Isle from Lae, New Guinea, July 2, 1937.
The book's format & length makes for difficult reading: -- it is based on best available scientific evidences & hypotheses of multiple disciplines of archeology, geophysics, aeronautics, anthropology, and review of both private & governmental archival information in addition to tabulating their search findings on tiny remote South Pacific Phoenix Isle "Gardner", but renamed Nikumaroro, or "Niku". Author was a principle TIGHAR investigator taking part in expeditions to Niku, & he writes with authority, -- having "been there, done that!"
Inclusion of more than 100 photos, illustrations, maps, etc., makes the reading more easily understood & tolerable: -- for it is not a book one picks up and being enchanted 'reads from cover to cover' without pause. For readers who want an up-to-date analysis of AE's disappearance this book is best read after the reader is thoroughly familiar with AE's character, avocations, skills, life experiences's and accolades by the press, politicians & the powerful, -- for Amelia was a complex person living in exciting, changing times on the cutting edge of new technologies.
Many of the chapters begin with stanzas of word parodies to be sung to certain melodies, attributable to TIGHAR but not author King. The parodies I found to be highly irregular, unsettling & not in best taste, so downgraded book from 5* to 4*.
Welcome back, TIGHARs.......2006-10-27
Those persistent TIGHARs are back with more suggestive but inconclusive research about what happened to Amelia Earhart, who disappeared in 1937 -- somewhere.
Every so often, somebody shows up in Hawaii with a kooky theory about Earhart, ranging from shot by the Japanese as a spy to still alive and keeping house in New Jersey.
The International Group for Historical Aircraft Recovery is far from kooky.
For one thing, they appear to have managed the trick of being zealous without becoming zealots. As lead author Thomas King puts it, "Most people have more pressing things to do" than hunt for a lost airplane that, given the odds, would more likely than not be under three miles of water.
The TIGHARs work, for free, in their spare time, on the assumption that, despite the geographical odds, Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan didn't just run out of gas and sink under the ocean. They think Earhart missed her target but may have crash landed on an intermittently inhabited (but in 1937 empty) island named Nikumaroro, where Earhart and Noonan might have either survived for a while or been eaten by crabs.
It's "a mystery that can't be put down," King says.
But hard to pin down.
Since the publication of "Amelia Earhart's Shoes" in 2001, the TIGHARs have run down more physical evidence, including things that look a lot like panels from a Lockheed Electra, but nothing definitive yet. The revised, 2005 edition is preferred over the first edition.
The story of the hunt also reveals a great deal of fascinating information about the South Pacific, which is big, mostly empty and weird.
HOW you solve the mystery is just as important.......2006-09-26
Who says historical research and science have to be boring? In Amelia Earhart's Shoes, Dr. Tom King and others take us on a winding (sometimes loopy, even!) journey that tries to answer the question: What happened to famed aviatrix Amelia Earhart and renowned navigator Fred Noonan in 1937 after they vanished during her around-the-world flight attempt?
Amelia Earhart's Shoes does not pretend to solve the mystery - it does show that by applying the scientific method to a popular event, you can strip away all the myths and fables and assumptions and come up with relatively simple explanations that can be tested to see if they are true or false. That the scientific method may upset a few of those legendary apple carts along the way is proof that it works - something is either true or not true, provable or not provable. In Earhart's case, the truth may turn out to be much more mundane than some of the more colorful "solutions" to her disappearance would have us believe.
There is a lot of information in Shoes, but it is presented in an easy to read, almost chatty style (think ghost stories around the campfire while making s'mores) that keeps you turning the pages to see what the heck is going to happen next. The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) has now been to the South Pacific eight times to try and prove or disprove their hypothesis that Earhart and Noonan missed their destination, tiny Howland Island, and landed on another deserted island, only to die (or perhaps be completely missed) before the frantic searchers could get to them.
Amelia Earhart's Shoes is a great read that should be on the bookshelf of everyone interested in what really did happen out there in the vastness of the Pacific Ocean almost 70 years ago.
Fantastic, not at all dry!.......2006-05-02
I saw one of the people involved in this project speak at EAA's big national air show in Oshkosh, WI last summer. It was the most popular lecture session I attended while I was there. Interested, I picked up this book expecting a thorough but dry, academic read.
Was I ever wrong! This book is not only fascinating, it's funny! It's written with some dry humor that made me want to keep reading more. And the authors lay out a strong argument, to boot. It does make one wonder...
I Couldn't Put This Book Down!.......2002-05-03
I picked up this book at my library on a lark. I've always been interested in what really happened to Amelia Earhart, but always just assumed that her plane crashed into the ocean. This book, however, completely opened my eyes to a new hypothosis: that Amelia and her navigator managed to land on an island and send out radio signals for help. The information presented in this book isn't just wild guesses and conspiracy theories - the authors make a point of backing up their thoughts with cold, hard evidence. I was hooked from the first page and got so engrossed that I ended up not doing my work at my job just so that I could finish a few more chapters. The book also has a wicked sense of humor and debunks the myth that scientists are just stodgy old guys. I'd reccomend this book to anyone with even an ounce of curosity. I'm holding my breath until Dr. Tom King and the other authors put out another book on Amelia. I can't wait to see what they find!
Book Description
Containing 277 business case studies that illustrate nearly every aspect of Excel, this book presents real-life business problems and works them through to their solutions. In addition to exemplary solutions, each case analysis considers alternate approaches and gotchas, and includes a summary of the necessary commands and functions. Excel files that can be downloaded and worked through step-by-step are included for each case.
Customer Reviews:
Good tips...and overall good book.......2007-04-10
I think the book was very good at giving examples on doing things that you might run into while making use of excel. In between the examples, you'll find a tip on a shortcut key or other, "I didn't know that" type information. The two weaknesses that I would give it are:
1) No example CD so I could follow along with the book (this was painful because I had to take time to create similar examples)
2) I wish it would go over all the shortcut keys. Perhaps I missed this but I have found these to be useful and wish the material had been better organized so that you could find them all in one place rather than sporadically buried in an example that had no indication it was teaching you a new shortcut.
Alas, there is much more positive than negative and I would definitely recommend the book to someone wanting to enhance their excel skills and learn a lot of tips they might have never learned otherwise.
quality info and easy to follow.......2007-03-21
This book is very well done. It's straight-forward, covers a wide amount of topics, and is practical in how it uses examples to demonstrate available functions. The only thing the book could have fleshed out more is macros.
Excellent Service........2007-03-08
Great amazon seller. I really like this book. It was shipped promptly. Highly recommended.
Using Mr Excel.......2007-03-08
There are a lot of great tips in this book. I purchased the book in order to provide my employees additional training in the use of Excel. Several people including myself have used the book. I have heard and received many compliments about how easy it was to follow.
I would highly recommend this book.
best of the lot!.......2006-04-24
wish bill publishes this book earlier. would have saved me all the hours spent doing it the longer way.
i read it every night b4 i go to bed. i uses excel everyday, and r learning vba but i still find this book so informative. the format is great, bit font, clear illustrations and most of the suggestions works as printed. thks Mr Excel!
pls publish one like this for vba!
Book Description
Two years after the executions of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette at the height of the French Revolution, a ten-year-old boy, his skin covered with scabies, his sanity gone, died in a Paris prison. Was this tortured child of royal birth, or had the young prince escaped? In time, the prince's surviving sister was approached by count-less 'brothers' claiming not only the dauphin's name, but also his inheritance. For the next 200 years, as rival royal dynasties vied for the French throne, this mystery went unsolved. It was not until experts discovered a mummified human heart in a crystal urn that the truth unfolded. Examining this historical mystery from every absorbing angle, Cadbury explains how modern DNA analysis uncovered a surprising answer to this centuries old mystery.
Customer Reviews:
If there is a better book about the Dauphin, please let me know.......2007-07-29
You read about how this little boy, who'd known only the best the world had to give, ended up in a sunless room, curled in a fetal position, full of puss and unable (or unwilling) to speak. This is a creepy tale that makes what happened to the son of the Tsar Alexander's son in 1917 (or there abouts...who knows for sure?) seem like a kind ending. It also gives you insight into his mother's execution and his sister's life.
A searing tale.......2007-05-23
Of all the human tragedy that marked the French Revolution, perhaps none was so acute as that experienced by the royal family. In this well-researched and engrossing book, Deborah Cadbury conveys the full measure of this tragedy in her description of the unspeakable horrors visited on the little Dauphin of France, Louis-Charles, son of Louis VXI and Marie-Antoinette. It is impossible to avoid that sick feeling in the pit of one's stomach as we read this harrowing tale, and it certainly helps explain why, to this day, many people can't bring themselves to believe that it was indeed Marie-Antoinette's "chou d'amour" who ended his days in so wretched a manner.
Cadbury also does a fine job of recounting in a very readable manner the seemingly endless procession of pretenders that began to emerge shortly after the Terror, and keeps the reader in suspense until the final denouement.
All in all, an excellent, moving book, not to be missed.
The Suffering of the Innocent.......2007-05-23
I enjoyed Deborah Cadbury's "The Lost King of France," although I would never recommend reading it at night, unless stories of small children being brutalized help one to sleep. Cadbury has a dry, logical style which makes her descriptions of the royal family's descent into hell all the more horrifying. I was perturbed when she stated that Fersen and Marie-Antoinette were probably lovers, without giving any evidence, especially when she was careful to give evidence for everything else. Also, on the cover of the book is most likely a picture of Louis-Joseph, not Louis-Charles (Louis XVII).
Many say that the book proves beyond doubt the death of Louis XVII on June 8, 1795, but it does not. The DNA merely concluded that the desiccated heart which was allegedly removed from the little victim who died in the Temple was the child of a Habsburg princess. As anyone familiar with European history knows, Habsburg princesses were legion; many not having the last name of Habsburg, but having Habsburg genes. Although it is highly probable that Louis XVII did die in the Temple at age ten after horrendous sufferings, it should be recalled that Madame Royale herself had doubts about the fate of her brother, since she had not been allowed to identify the body.
Great Read, Poorly Made Book.......2007-02-22
I purchased my soft cover copy of The Lost King of France in February 2007 through Amazon. As I began reading, the pages began to fall out of the book. The ink on the pages was thin, spotty,frequently irritating to read as one's eye stopped to make out whether a letter was an "e" or an "o." The publisher is St. Martin's Griffin. Fine work by the author - excellent read. Check it out of the library or find a hardback to buy. By the time you finish reading the paperback, you'll have a lap full of single pages and a severe case of eye strain. Paper's cheap too.
Well written.......2007-01-29
Oh , this is such a sad book, about a poor child that suffered so much---just because he was the son of Marie Antoinette. Parts of this book simply made me cry (especially at the very end of this book).
The author is AMAZING!...Wow, what a writer! I'd love to read more of her books after buying this one.
The information given inside this book (ie: on whether the "real" Boy King died in the horrible way which he did) were proven to me, in my humble opinion. The author covers all bases, in order to come up with the final conclusion on what truly happened to the poor King child.
I recommned this book if you like mysteries, biographies of famous people, and also if you like the topic of History , in general.
Amazon.com
A well-publicized 1994 Sotheby's auction listed, among other musical artifacts and ephemera on the block, a lock of Beethoven's hair. The high-bidders of the hair, two Beethoven enthusiasts, were easy enough to identify by their oddball names: one was a doctor named Che Guevara, the other a retired real estate developer named Ira Brilliant. But the real story, as author Russell Martin attempts to explain in this book, is how did the lock end up on the auction block? More important, can we learn anything from a 175-year-old snippet of hair? Somehow, author Russell Martin attempts to weave biographical information about Beethoven's life with scientific findings about his hair (the two buyers had the lock DNA-tested), as well as trace the path the hair took, from the great composer's head right into the present.
It's a tall order and one at which Martin partially succeeds. His facts about Beethoven and Ferdinand Hiller (the original keeper of the lock) are solid, but he hypothesizes at length about how the hair ended up in a small port town in Denmark during the Nazi occupation. Likewise, he spends nearly the entire second half of the book describing the lives of Guevara and Brilliant, occasionally sounding more like a press agent than a journalist. Subtitled "An Extraordinary Historical Odyssey and a Musical Mystery Solved," Beethoven's Hair doesn't truly solve any musical mysteries, but it is a fascinating, original read for Beethoven-philes who want to learn a little bit more about their favorite composer. --Jason Verlinde
Book Description
Ludwig van Beethoven lay dying in 1827, a young musician named Ferdinand Hiller came to pay his respects to the great composer. In those days, it was customary to snip a lock of hair as a keepsake, and this Hiller did a day after Beethoven's death. By the time he was buried, Beethoven's head had been nearly shorn by the many people who similarly had wanted a lasting memento of the great man. Such was his powerful effect on all those who had heard his music.
For a century, the lock of hair was a treasured Hiller family relic, and perhaps was destined to end up sequestered in a bank vault, until it somehow found its way to the town of Gilleleje, in Nazi-occupied Denmark, during the darkest days of the Second World War. There, it was given to a local doctor, Kay Fremming, who was deeply involved in the effort to help save hundreds of hunted and frightened Jews. Who gave him the hair, and why? And what was the fate of those refugees, holed up in the attic of Gilleleje's church?
After Fremming's death, his daughter assumed ownership of the lock, and eventually consigned it for sale at Sotheby's, where two American Beethoven enthusiasts, Ira Brilliant and Che Guevara, purchased it in 1994. Subsequently, they and others instituted a series of complex forensic tests in the hope of finding the probable causes of the composer's chronically bad health, his deafness, and the final demise that Ferdinand Hiller had witnessed all those years ago. The results, revealed for the first time here, are startling, and are the most compelling explanation yet offered for why one of the foremost musicians the world has ever known was forced to spend much of his life in silence.
In Beethoven's Hair, Russell Martin has created a rich historical treasure hunt, an Indiana Jones-like tale of false leads, amazing breakthroughs, and incredible revelations. This unique and fascinating book is a moving testament to the power of music, the lure of relics, the heroism of the Resistance movement, and the brilliance of molecular science.
An astonishing tale of one lock of hair and its amazing travels--from nineteenth-century Vienna to twenty-first-century America.
Download Description
An adventure story starring a lock of Beethoven's hair, this irresistible true tale mixes history, music and science into a compelling narrative. Beginning in 1827, when 582 strands of the great composer's hair were cut from his scalp, the author traces the history of the lock right up to the present day.
Customer Reviews:
A Biography of hair........2007-10-13
If you are looking for a biography of Beethoven this is not the book; however, if you are interested in the biography of his lock of hair, then you've hit pay dirt. How a lock of Beethoven's hair traveled from his head in 1827, at the time of his death, to Germany, Denmark, the United Stated, and Mexico is fascinating.
The portion of the book that delves into WWII, the Danish attempts to assist fleeing Jews, and how Beethoven's hair became involved is truly remarkable. It is also a piece of positive humanity I think Beethoven would have rejoiced. It is a portion of history few people are aware of, and I am saddened to learn I didn't know about it when I lived south of Gilleleje, Denmark. Being a Beethoven fanatic, and half Danish, makes the desire to return to Denmark to explore Beethoven's hair's path grow strong.
Learning more about how Ira Brilliant began his fabulous Center for Beethoven Studies was also a treat. As with my regret at not being able to speak directly to Beethoven, I regret that I can not speak or meet Mr. Brilliant. However, both men have left humanity with wonderful testaments to musical art, and will be greatly remembered and revered by Beethovenites.
Wonderful Book.......2007-05-25
Purchased the book for my daughter, who is a music student. Loved the book, it is more interesting and accessible than expected.
The Real Story about Beethoven and his deafness.......2007-01-10
This book was fascinating from the start. A mixture of World War II intrigue and Classical Music history. The book was well written and kept me involved to the end. I have used what I learned from it to help with my teaching in Music Connections in Middle School.
Good Content, With One Stylistic Problem.......2006-10-25
Let me say first - and I say it with enthusiasm - that I enjoyed the content and - unlike some - the layout of the book. However, there was one - and only one as far as I can figure - drawback to the book. It seemed at times like it happened on almost every page - this drawback - that Martin used extremely long hypenated sentences - like these, which, after a while could cause you to lose track of what the sentence started out to say - that caused me to have to read them three times to make sense of them. Okay, the point is made. That problem aside, I found the content of the book very riveting and exciting. I thought it was a nice creative touch to alternate between the history of Beethoven's lock of hair and the modern-day events surrounding its acquisition and scientific evaluation. The book even suggests a possible cause of Beethoven's deafness based on the study. I recommend the book. And now that it is in paperback, the price is right, too.
A thrilling biography of a clump of hair..........2006-08-11
A lock of hair, not a famous composer, plays the lead role in this forensic thriller. The story of how this lock found its way from Beethoven's head to the city of Cologne, to the port city of Gilleleje, to Sotheby's in New York City, and finally to the Beethoven Center in California makes for a breathtaking and page turning tale. And, along the way, a very likely explanation for the ravaging illnesses that plagued Beethoven throughout his life emerges. Not only that, it even played a part in saving Jews from Nazi terror. Quite an accomplishment for a clump of hair.
This book demonstrates the facility with which science and history can synergize. A simple wooden and glass locket states in antiquated writing that the hair within came from Ludwig Van Beethoven. But did it? As the item was passed for over a century through numerous hands in Germany, many may have harbored suspicions of its authenticity. After all, how does one prove that the hairs once sprouted from one of western civilization's key figures? And the stories of numerous fradulent relics, notably those of Saints, rings loud in european history. But modern science can unravel such questions, and, as the purchasers of the hair realized, many other surprising things.
In 1827, the hair in question did make its way from the scalp of Beethoven into the hands of young Ferdinand Hiller, who then made quite a name for himself in Cologne. Amongst his friends he could count Felix Mendlessohn, Franz Liszt, and Frederick Chopin. And throughout his fascinating life he met other luminaries such as Richard Wagner, Johannes Brahms, Hector Berlioz, and Goethe. He garnered a reputation as a composer and music critic, and achieved renown in his day. But his fame eventually faded, and he passed the locket on to his son, Paul, as a treasured family heirloom. The locket received some restoration work in 1911, and remained in the care of the Hiller family until the precarious era of Nazi Germany split apart families and cities. Somehow it ended up in the small city of Gilleleje in northern Denmark. The book explores various theories as to its arrival there. At the time the city was heroically transporting Jews to Sweden to keep them from the maw of the Nazis. A modest physician named Kay Fremming received the locket from one of the Jews hidden in the town church the very night the Gestapo stormed it and hauled away a hundred or so refugees. Fremming kept the locket in his office drawer for two decades. The Fremming's adopted daughter (she literally sat on their step one day and claimed them as her family when they arrived home) was shown the locket by Kay's wife, Marta. As time passed and Kay and his wife passed away, the locket came into the daughter's hands. Rough times later descended, and she decided to put the locket up for sale. Sotheby's showed an interest, and the some two hundred year old item appeared in the 1994 catalog. Ravenous Beethoven fans on the American continent bid on the piece, won it, and trasported it to the Beethoven Center in San Jose, California (where it remains). They had the idea to have some of the hair analyzed to help determine the cause of Beethoven's death, a wish that Beethoven had explicitly expressed in his letters. The analysis revealed the now old news that Beethoven had significant levels of lead in his body, and that lead poisoning likely hastened his death. That theory remains the accepted explanation. Then, to put the final piece in order, bone analysis linked the hair to Beethoven almost indubitably.
Weaving throughout the story of the locket is a cursory biography of Beethoven himself. Those familiar with his life will likely learn nothing new from these interposed sections. Regardless, they help elucidate Beethoven's health issues, and help point the book towards its ultimate goal. But the travails of the snipped hair remain the focus of the book.
A summary of the twisted plot leaves out the rich nuances and details that provide the book's real fascination. Not to mention the numerous people that came together to help solve the puzzle. This story has a curious parallel in the fictional movie "The Red Violin", in that the life of an object through phases of the human world receives elucidation. Fans of that movie will likely appreciate the intentions at work in "Beethoven's Hair". Perhaps the most astonishing fact is that a simple hair cutting led, two hundred years later, to the unveiling of a historical quandry. Which goes to show that very small human actions can lead inexorably to momentous consequences.
Book Description
When Amelia Earhart disappeared on July 2, 1937, she was flying the longest leg of her around-the-world flight and was only days away from completing her journey. Her plane was never found, and for more than sixty years rumors have persisted about what happened to her.
Now, with the recent discovery of long-lost radio messages from Earhart's final flight, we can say with confidence that she ran out of gas just short of her destination of Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean. From the beginning of her flight, a series of tragic circumstances all but doomed her and her navigator, Fred Noonan.
Authors Elgen M. and Marie K. Long spent more than twenty-five years researching the mystery surrounding Earhart's final flight before finally determining what happened. They traveled over one hundred thousand miles to interview more than one hundred people who knew some part of the Earhart story. They draw on authoritative sources to take us inside the cockpit of the Electra plane that Earhart flew and recreate the final flight itself. Because Elgen Long began his own flying career not long after Earhart's disappearance, he can describe the equipment and conditions of the time with a vivid first-hand accuracy. As a result, this book brings to life the primitive conditions under which Earhart flew, in an era before radar, with unreliable communications, grass landing strips, and poorly mapped islands.
Amelia Earhart: The Mystery Solved does more than just answer the question, What happened to Amelia Earhart? It reminds us how daring early aviators such as Earhart were as they risked their lives to push the technology of the day to its limits -- and beyond.
Download Description
Earhart's last days are recreated in gripping detail, based on the authors' expert knowledge and a recently discovered report of the final leg of her fateful around-the-world flight.
Customer Reviews:
A FASCINATING AND WELL RESEARCHED BOOK.......2005-10-15
This fine book by Elgin Long and his wife Marie is by far the most sensible and logical of all the works on this great mystery. It starts with the story of the last leg of her flight from Lae, New Guinea, to tiny Howland Island, a speck in the vast Pacific. It then goes back to trace the origins of the flight, the many personalities involved and the varied possible causes for the tragic loss of this great Aviator. As a pilot I found the navgational detail very useful although some may find it tedious.
Mr. Long is currently working with Nauticos Corp. conducting a deep sea search for the Earhart plane. Filmmaker James Cameron (Titanic) is also involved in this project. I personally think that the plane will be found someday. This outstanding work belongs on the bookshelf of anyone with an interest in the Earhart mystery.
amelia earhart.......2003-02-12
I'VE READ ABOUT TWENTY BOOKS ABOUT EARHART'S DISAPPEARANCE AND THIS IS THE BEST BOOK BY FAR! IF YOU ONLY READ ONE BOOK ABOUT AMELIA EARHART AND FRED NOONAN THIS IS THE ONE TO BUY.
A sensible answer at last.......2001-02-14
Very reminiscent of Gerald Posner's 'Case Closed' this book shows that an apparently unanswerable question can be answered if informed knowledge is brought to bear with clear logic and meticulous research. A fascinating and 'factual' analysis of the doomed aviatrix' last mission and a plausible explanation for the end. The Longs have written what must be considered the 'definitive' book on this undying mystery.
Crash or splash?.......2000-03-24
`The wing tips wobbled slightly, and suddenly the plane began veering to the left with increasing speed...it swung around and tilted with its right wing tip almost almost scraping the mat. The right landing gear suddenly collapsed, followed shortly by the left gear, and the plane slid on its belly. A shower of sparks spurted from the airplane...' Honolulu, March 1937, and Amelia Earhart's plane Electra has just crashed while attempting to take off on a test flight. The crash was bad news for the famous American woman aviator and her team: it meant they had to approach their financial backers for more funds to repair the plane if Earhart was to fly around the world. They got the money, of course, but worse was to come: Earhart and her navigator disappeared four months later on July 2, 1937, on the longest stretch of their epic trans-global flight. Since then what exactly happened to the Electra and its occupants has been a mystery. One of the stranger rumours have been that Earhart and her navigator were captured and spirited away by the Japanese, who had rather frosty relations with America in the days before Pearl Harbour and World War 2. But here the authors claim to solve the mystery: according to their reckoning, and backed up with a swag of maps, radio transmissions and estimates, they say the Electra simply ran out of fuel somewhere around their destination of Howland Island, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The plane (and the remains of its occupants) are lying 17,000 feet below the water somewhere around the tiny island. The mystery, of course, is why did it happen? Long-distance flying was extremely dangerous in those days, but it wasn't complete guesswork: Earhart had the latest and best radio, planned her flights with great care and had support and encouragement from the highest levels. However, several factors - minor on their own - all contributed to the disaster that took place. The Electra's radio equipment was so new it didn't have an accompanying instruction manual. Navigator Fred Noonan was relying on a map which showed Howland Island six miles west of where it really was. The wind was slightly stronger than Earhart thought it was, thus pushing her further away from the right direction. There was a US Navy vessel near the island, but radio contact between it and Earhart was sporadic, and they never saw each other. The book is very detailed, and contains a lot of technical information. There is much talk about mile radius, azimuth and radio frequencies. The authors do a sterling job of explaining the technical stuff where necessary while narrating an exciting tale. One of the later chapters examines the `area of uncertainty' the Electra had to grapple with on its last flight: the agonising calculations that Noonan would have performed in an effort to determine where the Electra was, and where Howland Island was. The Electra is still at the bottom of the ocean somewhere. Despite the careful research, the mystery of Earhart's last flight won't fully be solved until the plane is found - as with our own Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and his Lady Southern Cross. `Is the emergency equipment still there? Are there any signs of remains? There are dozens of questions that can be answered only be recovering the plane,' the authors conclude.
THE STRENGTH OF A WOMEN.......2000-01-09
I FIND THE BOOK VERY INTERESTING, EXCITING. IT REALLY MAKES YOU THING ABOUT WHAT REALLY HAPPENED\ IT SHOWS THE STRENGTH OF WOMEN BACK THEN. IT WOULD BE NICE TO ACTUALLY FIND THE PLANE AND SETTLE ALL THE CONTROVERSE, TO FINALLY GET CLOSURE. GREAT BOOK.
Customer Reviews:
This book is fantastic!.......2001-11-15
This book, published in 1989, is a distillation of Thor Heyerdahl's research on Easter Island. It traces the history of Easter Island's interaction with the outside world, from Roggeveen's visit in 1722 up to the time of the book's writing. Along the way, Mr. Heyerdahl builds his case that two peoples, one from South America and one from Polynesia populated Easter Island.
This book is fantastic! I am not entirely convinced of Mr. Heyerdahl's case, but found his case compelling nonetheless. The book itself has many color pictures and maps, and is visually quite stunning. Now, not all of the book is about Mr. Heyerdahl's proposed history, so if you are merely interested in Easter Island, then you will still enjoy this book. This is a great book, one that you should read!
Book Description
Honor can never be left behind.
Sixty years ago, as Allied forces pushed across Europe, the Nazis launched a desperate, overwhelming attack that caught them unprepared, setting off what would become known as one of the bloodiest, most brutal battles in human history: the Battle of the Bulge. Then, more than half a century after the last shots of World War II were fired, a team of forensic scientists and relic hunters enlisted the aid of several veterans of the Bulge for one last mission: to return to the battle site and recover the lost remains of their brothers-in-arms, to ensure they would be buried with all the honors they deserve. Written by a member of the expedition, this is a story of loyalty and the bonds of war, a compelling scientific mystery, and a long-awaited homecoming for families who waited decades for the return of their loved ones. Also included is a CD/DVD with additional images from the expedition, as well as other supplemental materials.
CD-ROM INCLUDES:
Slideshow image collection of the search for missing soldiers from the Battle of the Bulge, including recovered artifacts, wartime photos, and profiles of the missing soldiers.
Customer Reviews:
Dead of Winter.......2007-10-10
Bill:
Great book and a great testament to the members of the greatest generation who gave all during the battle of the bulge. A easy read and very informative. Known Bill since we were both kids but it has been a long time since I seen him. Your tireless pursuit of closure to the families of the MIAs from the Bulge is commendable. Your portrayel of the compassion that many locals still feel for for the American GI in Europe is very neat. Keep it up and write another book.
Aftermath Of Battle.......2007-03-14
"The Dead Of Winter" by Bill Warnock, Subtitled: "How Battlefield Investigators, WWII Veterans, And Forensic Scientists Solved The Mystery Of The Bulge's Lost Soldiers". Chamberlain Bros. Penguin books, New York, 2005.
The subtitle sums up the entire book. Bill Warnock, however, has written a book that combines History with story-telling, with the science of forensics, with the lives of Americans and Belgians, and with the honor of being World War II veterans who had fought and bled in the Battle of the Bulge, December 1944. The book is excellent.
While serving with the United States Air Force, the author opts for an assignment in a small corner of Europe, near some of the more important battlefields of the Second World War. His life has not been the same since. His initial curiosity becomes what appears to be a life-long obsession, as Warnock and his Belgian friends search for the remains of those soldiers long since dead on the battlefield. But, it is not enough just to find the remains, Mr. Warnock follows through with modern techniques of identification of the deceased, and documents the entire process in an interesting and understandable fashion. While working on each individual solider, Warnock develops a story-book tale of how that individual lived prior to the war, how he entered the U.S. Army, and the probable cause of his death. It is surprising to me how many of the subjects of this book were members of ASTP, Army specialized Training Program. Further, I was surprised to see that my alma mater, Manhattan College (see page 238) had ASTP training. (Manhattan College is in the Bronx.)
Warnock's book is enjoyable and well documented. For example, Appendix B, entitled, "U.S. Army Dog Tags In world War II", had me pulling out my Navy dog tag (now fifty years old) for comparison. The dog tag had "...corners rounded and edges smooth" (page 286), with blood type and religion and service number, as in the appendix, but, in the left corner, mine had the term, "USN".
One little issue: page 118 had "... Camp Myles Standish near Taunton, Massachusetts." Myles Standish is about 30 miles, or so, from Taunton. The camp, now Myles Standish State Forest, IS located in the town of Plymouth, Massachusetts, best known, I would think, for being the place where the Pilgrims came ashore in 1620.
Exceptional!.......2006-09-24
This brilliantly written story follows the efforts of a group of people who dedicated themselves to locating the lost remains of the men who served with the 99th Infantry Division at the Battle of the bulge. THE DEAD OF WINTER begins with an introduction of two Belgian artifact hunters, Jean-Louis Seel and Jean-Philippe Speder who, in 1988, stumbled upon the remains and dog tags of an American soldier.
Readers will gain a true respect for the difficulty involved in researching, reconstructing and execution of actual artifact hunting undertaken by the dedicate group to find and identify the remains of American soldiers lost for half a century. For each of the soldiers that the team finds, Warnock gives the reader a detailed synopsis of his life (including excellent pictures of the soldiers and their surviving family members). Next he recreates how the soldier died on the battlefield and how he paid the ultimate sacrifice for his country. It is certainly a fitting tribute to these men and their accomplishments.
The author also gives an excellent overview of the contributions of the 99th Infantry to the Battle of the Bulge. The overview is supported by numerous first hand accounts. This covers the Bulge from the tactical, logistical and personal levels. Thanks to Warnock and his teams efforts, many lost members of the 99th Infantry have found their rightful place and final tribute.
The book is exceptionally well written and will be greatly appreciated by history lovers.
Bill Warnock's Magnum Opus.......2006-07-26
Bill Warnock has written a spectacularly detailed and wonderfully crafted tale of which he is a main protagonist -- a selfless American who has dedicated the last 20 or more years of his life to reuniting the dead heroes of World War II with their families. I must admit to the favoritism I feel toward Bill because he and I met on the Ardennes battlefield back in the early 1980s while I was researching my first book, The Key to the Bulge. Many of the people in this great work are close friends of mine. Even with this foreknowledge, I cannot help but stand in awe of Bill's skillfully written and masterfully researched chronicle of his team's efforts to discover and return to their homes the lost heroes of the Battle of the Bulge. This book is more than a simple tale of how a group of dedicated Americans and Belgians sought the final resting places of those men who went missing during the Bulge. Instead, it is a tale of devotion, Herculean persistance, and selfless dedication. The only reward that Bill and his team sought for their actions was the satisfaction of recovering the remains of our dead heroes and giving closure to families whose pain remained unhealed for 50 or more years. This book is a gem and a lasting testimony to those who truly appreciate the sacrifice of America's fighting men and women. Thanks, Bill. Well done.
Emotionalism At It's Purest Level.......2006-05-05
When I first started reading The Dead Of Winter I thought it would be another one of those books where there would be more boring facts and figures than personal, intimate, and emotional first hand accounts of infantrymen doing all they could do to survive the first few days of The Battle Of The Bulge. Bill Warnock, has done an outstanding job of resurrecting the fate of several infantrymen of the 99th Infantry who were killed and left behind after their positions in Belgium were overrun by the German jauggernaut of 16 December 1944. I became intimately attached to David Read, Mike Larson, Ewing Fidler, 2nd Lt Holloway, Sgt Frederick Zimmerman, and many of the others who died and were left behind to be buried in lonesome graves on the battlefield of Belgium and the Ardennes Forest. Thanks to the perserverance, tanacity, and cooperation of Carl Seel, Mr. Speider, Hans Honen, Ed Whithead, Mr. Swanson, and many others, these lost souls were found and brought home to their families, or given descent burials alongside their comrades who fought and died on the battlefields of World War II. Mr. Seel, and Mr. Speider who initially started this episode are the real heroes here too, because, as honest, caring, and loving men who cared about the American soldiers who liberated their country from the Nazi's, they took it upon themselves to try to locate, identify, and bring attention to these men who had died so gallently, but had to be left behind in the heat of battle. This is an awesome book, very well written, exactingly documented and recorded with all the facts of the men who were killed in action, and is well worth reading. I strongly urge everyone who loves freedom, history, and this great country to read this book. The men who were lost back in 1944, and the families they left behind, is a poignant reminder of just how fragile and important freedom is.
Book Description
Think science is a bunch of test tubes, microscopes and guys in lab coats? Think again! Science is bursting with far-out but true stories, fascinating puzzles and mind-boggling mysteries. Science Detectives follows fearless and dedicated science sleuths tracking down leads and solving cases all over the world - in cities and in deserts, deep underground, high in the sky and even in your DNA. Science Detectives includes five fascinating projects to test your science-detection skills.
Customer Reviews:
Book sent to be reviewed for libraries..........2007-04-17
Ok, this is a fun book for children, since young people are always interested in what is going on. However, if we don't take care of these habitats for foxes and raccoons, these creatures are going to search for other places to live including moving into areas closer to humans and their urban develpments.
This book is simple to read and actually does a pretty good job explaining the science beind the simple experiments. This is a good source to go to for basics. I've used it for basic concepts and demonstations in hearing and deaf universities. Also demonstrates a fairly good way to understanding how to do the 'scientic methods,' something that is not taught very well at school or at home all the time or even in the labs all the time.
(the first time I wrote this book review I must have been half asleep because I definitely did an awful job of it!)
Karen Sadler
Customer Reviews:
Very Fun Read - And you learn something besides!.......2006-07-25
I love a think-outside-the-box kind of book! This one is it!
modern physics that makes sense to my ten-year-old.......2003-01-29
Serious Sherlock Holmes fans may be offended by the use of their favorite characters, but the characters are well done and make the subject vastly more accessible. I've been reading this aloud to my ten-year-old, with only occasional asides explaining an unfamiliar word or pointing out an anachronism, and he now knows more about relativity than most adults. The explanation of how an atomic bomb works is wonderfully clear. The plots and characters retain my son's interest, keeping this firmly among the ranks of "fun" rather than "improving" books, while explaining important material in an easily understood way.
A good book - much more interesting than the usual way.......1999-12-14
I have read the first several chapters of this book. It is very good. The way it was written is much more interesting than the traditional way of writing physics books. Although it was somewhat difficult to understand in places, I could usually figure them out after I read them again. Also provides some of the history of physics. A good book for beginners.
Book Description
Scurvy took a terrible toll in the Age of Sail, killing more sailors than were lost in all sea battles combined. The threat of the disease kept ships close to home and doomed those vessels that ventured too far from port. The willful ignorance of the royal medical elite, who endorsed ludicrous medical theories based on speculative research while ignoring the life-saving properties of citrus fruit, cost tens of thousands of lives and altered the course of many battles at sea. The cure for scurvy ranks among the greatest of human accomplishments, yet its impact on history has, until now, been largely ignored.
From the earliest recorded appearance of the disease in the sixteenth century, to the eighteenth century, where a man had only half a chance of surviving the scourge, to the early nineteenth century, when the British conquered scurvy and successfully blockaded the French and defeated Napoleon, Scurvy is a medical detective story for the ages, the fascinating true story of how James Lind (the surgeon), James Cook (the mariner), and Gilbert Blane (the gentleman) worked separately to eliminate the dreaded affliction.
Scurvy is an evocative journey back to the era of wooden ships and sails, when the disease infiltrated every aspect of seafaring life: press gangs "recruit" mariners on the way home from a late night at the pub; a terrible voyage in search of riches ends with a hobbled fleet and half the crew heaved overboard; Cook majestically travels the South Seas but suffers an unimaginable fate. Brimming with tales of ships, sailors, and baffling bureaucracy, Scurvy is a rare mix of compelling history and classic adventure story.
Customer Reviews:
Fascinating social, Medical, and Historical Account on the Problem of Scurvy in the Age of Sail .......2007-04-05
I really enjoyed "Scurvy: How a Surgeon, a Mariner, and a Gentlemen Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail" by Stephen Brown. It was a fast-paced, easy-to-read, well written book about the effects of scurvy upon mariners (and world history) during the 16th-18th centuries.
I read "Scurvy" in a few hours. The book kept my interest all the way from the horrible description of scurvy's physical effects upon the human body to the individual stories about Lind, Cook, Blane, Nelson, and other historical figures who fill its pages.
"Scurvy" was full of information, both medically and historically, as well as socially. It provided a great deal of info on life on the sea during "The Age of Sail." It also easily explained the medical limitations and theories of the time, underscoring the human failings that prevented significant medical advancement. Finally, it provided rich accounts of people and events from European history that are truly interesting, making me want to learn more.
Perhaps its only failing is that it didn't cover Vitamin C in detail (or scurvy on land), though I admit that was not the draw of the book. The book was about a horrible disease that killed millions of sailors, how a few good men finally figured out how to prevent it, and what that meant to the world. Highly recommended.
reh.......2007-03-28
Well written. An interesting insite into life aboard sailing ships and the conditions endured by sailors and ignored by the admiralty in the age of sailing vessels.
Great Story - Some Lessons For Today .......2006-12-18
Finding and implementing a cure for scurvy on Naval vessels had the same impact on the fleet as the introduction of nuclear power did to the submarine fleet more than 200 years later.
The author does a great job of recreating the conditions on the naval ship of the era, where scurvy took a huge toll among the crew and left few unaffected. When added to the horrific hygene on the ships, a majority of the crew was doomed as the vessels undertook long voyages to farflung shores.
The search for a cure is a classic study in the behavior of large organizations over the centuries. It was not enough to discover and then rediscover the cure, it was required that the established "cures" be slowly overcome.
It is a very enjoyable and enlightening read. Highly recommended.
A Fascinating History.......2006-10-12
For those who are not familiar with life aboard long-distance sailing ships during the Age of Sail, this book is quite an eye-opener. The author pulls no punches when describing the dreadful living conditions that had to be endured by sailors and, he is particularly graphic in his descriptions of the horrible effects that scurvy had on those afflicted. He recounts the attempts made by certain key individuals to understand and cure the disease as well as the frustrating steps taken backwards when any significant progress that was made was set aside and ignored mainly due to the bureaucratic inertia that pervaded the British Royal Navy at the time. The writing style is clear, friendly and quite engaging such that the book is difficult to put down. This book would likely be of most interest to history buffs, medical history buffs and anyone interested in people's lives and times during the Age of Sail.
Yarrr!.......2006-08-02
This is an awesome book!
This book is about the overlooked details involving scurvy,
but goes into some great detail about life on a sailing vessel.
Read this book!
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