Book Description
This unique book combines lucid and engaging exposition, graphic and poignantly applied examples, and realistic exercises to take readers beyond the mechanics of statistical techniques. The result is a journey into the realm of practical data analysis and inference-based problem solving.
Customer Reviews:
Book Contents.......2006-03-08
The "search inside this book" feature was not available when this review was posted. Hope it helps.
Contents:
1 What is Statistics?
2 Tools for Exploring Univariate Data
3 Exploratory Tools for Relationships
4 Probabilities and Proportions
5 Discrete Random Variables
6 Continuous Random Variables
7 Sampling Distributions of Estimates
8 Confidence Intervals
9 Significance Testing: Using Data to Test Hypotheses
10 Data on a Continuous Variable
11 Tables of Counts
12 Relationships between Quantitative Variables: Regression and Correlation
13 Control Charts
14 Time Series
Appendix: Statistical Tables
References
Answers to Selected Problems
Index
Customer Reviews:
Captivating Memoir of Repeated First Contacts in New Guinea - With Photos.......2007-01-06
Michael Leahy, James Taylor and their indigenous crews searched for gold in the New Guinea Highlands during the 1930's. They found perhaps a million previously unknown people of some 5,000 different tribes speaking 2,000 different languages - each tribe isolated by mutually enforced strict boundaries. When Leahy first entered the Highlands in 1930 he took a camera but rarely used it - by 1933 he saw himself as not only a gold prospector and entrepreneur but an explorer with an unparalleled opportunity to document a unique event. In 1980 the authors found some 5,000 professional quality 35mm photos and several hours of 16mm videos. This resulted in a TV documentary and this book which presents dozens of the more spectacular photos.
The exhilaration of first contact between modern explorers and people from primitive culture is replayed repeatedly as Leahy and Taylor travel with the impunity that the tribal folks cannot - with the security of their guns always at hand. They admit to causing 40-50 native fatalities when things got out of control.
Authors Connolly and Anderson interviewed not only the explorers, but many of the New Guineans who remembered the first contacts. It was easier than you might think. All they had to do was retrace the paths of Leahy and Taylor, well-documented in their journals and photos. When kids invariably welcomed them to a village, usually similarly named from 50 years before, they just asked to speak to the old people.
Captivating photos document the emotions of the "discovered" on every third or fourth page of this remarkable memoir. Definitely worth reading.
Book Description
This is Kay Whitaker's spellbinding account of her "reluctant" apprenticeship to Domano and Chea Hetaka, two charismatic shamans from the Amazon Basin who come to teach her -- a young homemaker -- to be a Kala Keh nah seh, a builder of webs of balance," and to hand down the ancient wisdom of their people. In spite of her doubts and fears, Whitaker finds the balance and harmony she was destined to know.
Customer Reviews:
Fully Engaging.......2006-11-27
Brilliant, utterly compelling, and unforgettable. Highly recommended is an understatement. Far beyond and any other book on shamanism that I've read, this one is a multi-level, multi-sensory experience . It's one of those rare books that can awaken the reader's consciousness, compassion and heart. While autobiographical, the book also offers core information and teaching stories that are timeless. The author's personal experiences include exercises that can be easily put into practice. Yet,this is not another technique book. It's an irresistible call to remember and be who we truly are. It offers a path to living joyously in integrity with our Truth , Earth and all of Creation. One of a few books that I've read more then once. I am inspired by and grateful for the dedication, courage and commitment of the author and her teachers. This book is a treasure.
First Read this back in 1991 in Hardback edition.......2006-10-07
The book is still good as gold. Sometimes old books and old stories get better with age - certainly this applies to Whitaker's life experiences as written in her book "The Reluctant Shman". She goes from her more simple life in Santa Cruz into a whole new universe of spirtual explorations. She expands her world inside and out as she learns some new profound teachings and experiences many revolations- which she passes along to the reader.
Fascinating, entertaining and perhaps, in some ways, enlightening. How open you are to what she is saying will taint what you believe and what you absorb of her story and the message. It takes an open mind to digest all of the book - but if all she says happened, then it is really a very profound book of experinces that she shares. She certainly risks great ridicule by sharing this story if it were not fact - so we trust that she speaks from her heart.
Take with a pinch of salt.......2006-05-13
The author is approached one day by two indians who inform her that she is to be taught the way of their people. I was really looking forward to reading this book and hoped for an honest account of someone who had made an unexpected step into the spirit world.
Initially, I was not disappointed. The author describes her indian friends and the shamanic experiences beautifully including her emotional reactions to each experience.
By about two thirds through, however, I was wondering if the author would ever begin to mature. At the beginning of the book we learn that the author is filled with fear and anxiety and has difficulty standing up for herself; typical, as she says, of a 1950's upbringing. But despite tremendously powerful shamanic experiences, she never seems to loose the immediate reaction of fear to all new experiences. Even those delivered to her by her new friends are met with fear and questioning - right till the very end of the book. I found it very difficult to reconcile such powerful expereinces that require balance and spiritual strength with the author's fear and disbelief. I came to doubt the story as it was told.
As this book was written some time after her experiences (she was asked by the indians not to record any of her experiences whilst she was learning) I can only assume that the book is constructed to show the human side of things combined with the shamanic experience, rather than trying to show the spiritual journey as a maturing experience.
A very good read for the experiences themselves, irritating by the end.
The Gift of One's Song.......2006-02-10
The Reluctant Shaman opened for me the
door to my spiritual journey. Every
single page nourishes the soul. After
reading this I had very powerful dreams,
one of which informed me of "the gift
of my song". Every time I sing this
it heightens my consciousness and gives
me renewing energy. This book inspires
one's entire being how to literally be
in tune with oneself. Densely packed
with gems of stories, it was an adventure
of a read. Kay's personal style of writing
invites the reader to experience the magic
firsthand. Like a magical treasure box, each
time this book is opened it reveals more
wisdom to live by. I return to it often
for inspiration. I truly hope many more
will discover and enjoy Kay's mesmerizing
account.
A really fun read, these people are GREAT!.......2005-01-12
I haven't laughed so much since reading Rita Mae Brown's "Six of One"! These people are so joyful, so insouciant,so playful, that they really lightened up my spirits at a rather depressing time in my life. The whole premise of the book is so ... outlandish! I read fiction for that feeling of going SOMEWHERE ELSE, somewhere I can't go myself and this account of one woman getting there in real life is a RIOT!!!
I've had enough weird experiences to recognise the truly confused voice of real experience in this book - it's NOT fiction! - and reading this is like watching the Marx brothers come to one of my family's holiday get-togethers! There's no meanness in the humor, just affection, and the ridiculous combination of modern world with ancient psychic practices is just hilarious!
In addition, the hope that there CAN be a larger world out there, just waiting for us to find it, a loving, supportive, enthusiastic universe waiting to buttonhole us on the street, just to tell us to come on in and join the party is a beautiful and PRICELESS gift that this book brings, and an accurate one, in my experience.
Book Description
A collection of personal stories about the experience of competing in one's first Ironman triathlon. This is the ultimate test of endurance: a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride, and a 26.2-mile run, all raced end-to-end in one grueling day-and these stories tell it straight: what to expect, how to prepare, what was rewarding, what was miserable. These stories come from men and women of all ages and abilities. Some are stories from the champions, and some from those who did not finish. Together they testify to all the joy and agony of the race; and they provide priceless personal advice on nutrition, equipment, clothing, mental preparation, emotional fatigue, terrain, and weather. An unforgettable ode to an extraordinary endurance sport-a book for anyone who wants to become an ironman.
Customer Reviews:
Great Read!.......2007-01-03
This book is a great read for someone training for their first IM. The stories give you an idea of what to expect when the big day comes. They also are very inspiring.
Wasn't what I thought.......2006-11-06
This book is great to read about different stories of various people who become Ironman. Just a collection of short stories. It was interesting.
very inspiring stories, but it can get repetitive.......2005-09-23
"Becoming an Ironman" is a collection of personal stories of the first experience of many athletes attempting their first Ironman Triathlon. An Ironman Triathlon is a race consisting of a 2.4 mile swim followed by a 112 mile bike ride followed by a marathon (26.2 miles). Some runners may consider the marathon to be the ultimate endurance event and with good reason, the marathon is not to be taken lightly, but Ironman only lets you run a marathon after one has traveled 114.4 miles. Since "Ironman" is actually a trademark of the World Triathlon Corporation, the "Ironman" name can only be used for a race sponsored by the WTC. But any triathlon of 140.6 miles can be considered an "Iron" distance race and the finishers are no less an Ironman as those finishing a sponsored race. 140.6 miles is a long, long way to go, and typically there is a 17 hour time limit. In "Becoming an Ironman" many athletes will tell of their experience in their own words.
The stories contained in this book are broken into a variety of sections. There are stories from those who are middle of the pack athletes and who struggled with the Ironman but still found strength to complete it. There is a section featuring athletes who learned in their first attempt that they were quite good at this distance and turned in excellent times which put them among the leaders. Conversely the stories of those who finished Ironman with only a minute or an hour to spare are no less compelling. Then there are the Did Not Finish (DNF) stories of those who for one reason or another had to drop out of the race or just could not make it to the finish line in time (the one who finished some six minutes after 17 hours was tough to take).
Every one of these stories provides inspiration to push through my pain in a race and furthers my desire to one day attempt and complete an Ironman despite the pain I know it will cause. But these same stories collected in "Becoming an Ironman" suffers from the fact that while reading a handful of these stories is easy and inspiring, reading every story back to back becomes repetitive. Yes, everyone struggled and gutted it out and provides a reason to be inspired, but it is essentially the same story every time with minor variations. The different sections helps as the stories are grouped into similar kinds of experiences, but it is still a lot of take at one time.
My recommendation is that this is an excellent book about the Ironman experience from the perspective of the average (if "average" can describe anyone attempting Ironman) athlete, but the reader should only read a few stories a day. Each story is only a few pages long and this way there will be less of a sense of burnout by the time the end is reached. Inspiring stuff, here.
-Joe Sherry
Flawed, but well worth reading........2005-09-20
I'm not training for an ironman and never have, but a friend who's done one gave me this book to read and I rather feel inclined to do one now. I'm training for my first marathon now and, at the risk of getting ahead of myself, I'm already looking to bigger and better things.
This book, I'll admit, is a bit repetitive at times. It consists of a couple-dozen 5-10 page stories about people's ironmans. I found the four DNF stories the most interesting and meaningful. Many of the stories end up sounding the same; "it was hard, I got really tired, but I made it!". Nonetheless, I think the insight from these people is pretty cool and I'd recommend this before taking on the challenge oneself.
Elsewhere I saw somebody mention a problem with this book was the lack of info on each person and I agree fully. There is a short paragraph at the end of each story about what the person is doing now but that's it. I'd like some more details like: Did they compete much in the past (if they didn't mention it in their essay, you have no clue)? What training approach did they use (I don't want a training manual, but still)?
My wife, who will read anything, found this book incredibly boring. Other than the DNF section, she couldn't be bothered, but then again I think only really endurance competitors understand why they do it so it's not a book intended for a wide audience.
Ironman inspiration!.......2005-01-13
This book is filled with the inspiring first-person accounts of Ironman participants. It provides a personal insight into the struggles and aspirations of a wide variety of competitors, from first-time amateurs to seasoned professionals. The stories are compelling and personal - the writing is not edited much at all, allowing the voice of the writer to come through strongly, so that each story offers a unique perspective. I found the book consistently moving and inspirational, and although I'm just starting to train for my first triathlon, I can't help but dream of one day becoming an Ironman myself! If you have any interest in triathlons, or endurance sports in general, or if you just enjoy reading about personal athletic triumph, read this book.
Book Description
On November 4, 1979, Iranian militants stormed the United States Embassy in Tehran and took sixty-six Americans captive. Thus began the Iran Hostage Crisis, an affair that captivated the American public for 444 days and marked America's first confrontation with the forces of radical Islam. Using hundreds of recently declassified government documents, historian David Farber takes the first in-depth look at the hostage crisis, examining its lessons for America's contemporary War on Terrorism.
Unlike other histories of the subject, Farber's vivid and fast-paced narrative looks beyond the day-to-day circumstances of the crisis, using the events leading up to the ordeal as a means for understanding it. The book paints a portrait of the 1970s in the United States as an era of failed expectations in a nation plagued by uncertainty and anxiety. It reveals an American government ill prepared for the fall of the Shah of Iran and unable to reckon with the Ayatollah Khomeini and his militant Islamic followers.
Farber's account is filled with fresh insights regarding the central players in the crisis: Khomeini emerges as an astute strategist, single-mindedly dedicated to creating an Islamic state. The Americans' student-captors appear as less-than-organized youths, having prepared for only a symbolic sit-in with just a three-day supply of food. ABC news chief Roone Arledge, newly installed and eager for ratings, is cited as a critical catalyst in elevating the hostages to cause célèbre status.
Throughout the book there emerge eerie parallels to the current terrorism crisis. Then as now, Farber demonstrates, politicians failed to grasp the depth of anger that Islamic fundamentalists harbored toward the United States, and Americans dismissed threats from terrorist groups as the crusades of ineffectual madmen.
Taken Hostage is a timely and revealing history of America's first engagement with terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism, one that provides a chilling reminder that the past is only prologue.
Customer Reviews:
"Taken Hostage".......2007-10-19
Very good coverage of before, during, and after this act of war.
Taken Hostage: The Iran Hostage Crisis and America's First Encounter with Radical Islam (Politics and Society in Twentieth Century America)
More than a mere account of historical events.......2005-01-24
This book is an outstandingly researched work and I applaud Farber's thoroughness. I just finished writing my final research paper for my historical methods class on the Iran hostage crisis and this text was an indispensable resource.
It is so much more than just an account of the hostage crisis. Farber really delves beneath the surface of the events and decisions related to the crisis. He paints a picture for the reader of the sentiments prevalent among the citizenries of both the United States and Iran. He goes further by describing the reasons behind those sentiments. This puts the decisions made by the Carter administration, the actions taken by the Iranians, and the reactions to both of these by the American public in a context and framework essential to understanding the hostage crisis and its related issues. Highly Recommended.
Excellent historical account.......2004-11-10
Farber does a very good job with this book. I was anxious to read it for its historical significance with the 25th anniversary of the hostage crisis. I was in grade school during those 444 days. I wasn't old enough to understand why our citizens were being held. I was old enough to remember other things: the yellow ribbons, Walter Cronkite counting the days each night, Mickey Mouse bumper stickers giving Iran the finger.
The book is very strong with the background of Iranian/US relations. Most Americans probably don't realize the important role people like Eisenhower (and the CIA) played in deposing Iranian despot Mossadegh and installing Mohammed Reza Pahlavi (the Shah) into power.
Farber does a nice job of explaining how it is the policy decisions of the US government that were the root causes of the hostage crisis. The main decisions being installing the Shah and subsequently providing refuge for an ailing Shah in mid-1979. An interesting parallel can be drawn today with the current war on terror. Al Qaeda doesn't hate America so much for what we stand for as for the policy decisions we make.
Farber also does a nice job of describing the troubled days of the Carter administration. Carter had to deal with almost insurmountable problems during his term. Stagflation, high unemployment, the gas crunch and finally (his ultimate downfall) the crisis in Iran.
The book reads very quickly for a so-called historical white-paper. I would recommend it for anyone who is interested in knowing a bit more about the history of Iran and the hostage crisis as well as those interested in the war on terror and some of its early beginnings.
Average customer rating:
- Canadian artist of Native American culture and her influence
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Unsettling Encounters: First Nations Imagery in the Art of Emily Carr
Emily Carr
Manufacturer: UBC Press
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The Art of Emily Carr
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Raven Travelling: Two Centuries of Haida Art
ASIN: 0295986085 |
Book Description
Unsettling Encounters radically re-examines Emily Carr's achievement in representing Native life on the Northwest Coast, and her goals and achievements in representing Native villages and totem poles in her paintings and writings. Reconstructing a neglected body of Carr's works that was central in shaping her vision and career makes possible a new assessment of her significance as a leading figure in the history of early twentieth-century Modernism.
Unsettling Encounters includes a vivid recreation of the rapidly changing historical and social circumstances in which Carr painted and wrote. She lived and worked in British Columbia at a time when the growing settler population was rapidly taking over and developing the land and its resources. Gerta Moray argues that Carr's work takes on its full significance only when it is seen as a conscious intervention in settler-Native relations. She examines the work in relation to the images of Native peoples that were then being constructed by missionaries and anthropologists and exploited by the promoters of world's fairs and museums.
Carr's famous, highly expressive later paintings were based to a great extent on the results of her early experience. At the same time they were a response to new currents in North American culture in the 1920s and 1930s. Moray explores Carr's participation in the Group of Seven's agenda to build a national culture and her sense of her own position as a woman artist in this masculine arena.
Unsettling Encounters is the definitive study of Carr's "Indian" images, locating them both within the local context of Canadian history and the wider international currents of visual culture.
Customer Reviews:
Canadian artist of Native American culture and her influence.......2007-03-06
The varied content on this 20th-century Canadian painter "moves through a series of concentric circles, putting into place the multiple dimensions of the period...." Carr's life and career do not lend themselves to a straightforward, chronological account. While her interests in the regional Native American culture never changed and her artistic subjects and style are distinguishable, how she was regarded by others, especially Canadians, changed. At one time, Carr was seen as a "little old woman on the edge of nowhere" with an inscrutable, but useful and revealing attachment to the western Canadian Native American culture, and at other times seen as a leading and much-lauded artist gaining wide attention for Canada's art and indigenous peoples. Always feeling like an outsider herself, Carr gravitated toward the Native American culture at a time when most Canadians had little interest in it and assumed it would before long die out from neglect and obsolescence. But the 1927 Exhibition of Canadian West Coast Art, Native and Modern, manifest the Canadian government's changed attention to the country's First Nations. Display of paintings of Carr's at this major Exhibition brought her notice throughout Canada and beyond. She became established as a leading modern Canadian artist not only for her subjects which are now seen as typically Canadian, but also for the modernism of her style. Her paintings of totem poles, totemic figures such as bears and eagles, and buildings and nature scenes have pronounced primitivist and cubist elements; and most are done in bold, simple strokes and patches in darker tones evoking expressionism. With her subjects and her style, Carr made a lasting place for herself in the fields of Native American and modernist art.
Book Description
Prima Knows F.E.A.R.
·A comprehensive guide to the chilling single-player game, with every clue uncovered
·Statistics for every weapon, and strategies on when to use it
·Walkthroughs for every Instant Action map and bonus mission
·Labeled maps for every multiplayer arena, with a visual guide to important strategic points
·In-depth information about every evil enemy you'll face, including statistics and combat strategies
Amazon.com
In this intriguing work of scholarly detection, forensic anthropologist James Chatters relates the story of a fossil discovery that has challenged received wisdom about the peopling of the Americas--and that has touched off a storm of controversy.
On July 28, 1996, two students happened on a skull that peeked from the mud of a Washington riverbank. When police officers arrived at the site, they called in Chatters, a deputy coroner and scientist. At first glance, Chatters guessed that the skull was that of a white pioneer, perhaps a hundred or so years old, but on examining other skeletal remains, he began to suspect that the human eventually dubbed "Kennewick Man" was much older indeed. Various scientific tests proved him right: the skeleton was around 9,500 years old. But Kennewick Man, he announced, was also "Caucasoid" in appearance, a revelation that triggered charges of racism and tomb-robbing by local Native Americans, who claimed the remains as part of their cultural heritage. The announcement also drew in white supremacists, who seized on Chatters's discovery to argue that their forebears were the first to arrive in North America.
Both the term "Caucasoid" and its racially charged interpretations were off the mark, Chatters writes, for Kennewick Man should be seen as an ancestor to us all. Some of his features, and those of other ancient remains found elsewhere in the Americas, suggest a kinship with peoples as various as Polynesians, Ainu, medieval Icelanders, and Australian aborigines. More important than bloodline is the revision that Kennewick Man and his cousins force in our account of the arrival of humans in the Americas, which, Chatters argues, happened in waves over long periods of time and involved people of widely varied features and genetic traits.
Writing evenly of a controversy that continues to rage, Chatters provides a behind-the-scenes view of physical anthropology, as well as a fascinating revision of the human past. --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
In 1996, two young men found a skeleton along the Columbia River near Kennewick, Washington. "Kennewick Man," as he became known, was brought to forensic anthropologist Jim Chatters, who was astonished when tests revealed the skeleton to be nearly 9,500 years old, one of the oldest intact skeletons ever found in North America -- and one that bore little resemblance to modern Native Americans. So who was Kennewick Man, and where did he come from?
Chatters set off to find out, but his work on the skeleton was soon halted when local Native American groups claimed the skeleton as an ancestor under federal law, and demanded the right to rebury the remains. Agreeing with their claim, the U.S. government seized Kennewick Man and put him into federal storage, where he remains to this day. So began a harsh, politically charged conflict, with scientists, Native Americans, and government agencies fighting to decide the destiny of Kennewick Man.
While this battle raged, Chatters began a quest to understand the lives and origins of Kennewick Man and his contemporaries, a quest that took him across three continents and far back in time to learn the identity of these true First Americans. Ultimately, it led him to a sense of what it really means to be human.
Customer Reviews:
Height a problem.......2007-10-08
I read the book and found it wonderful.
Kennewick man is 5'8" (173 cm)and even though I have been to Hokkaido seen the Ainu People.I have never seen a 5'8" Ainu.In fact at 5 '2" they were about (160cm) they were a little shorter or the same height as me.I have allot of problems with the description of this ancient Ainu man.His enormous nose and the skull look different from Ainu.My field is Archeology and I have a masters in both archeology and anthropology. This smells of politics to me and believe me there is plenty of that in Archeology.
Who Were the First Americans?.......2005-01-02
The story of the fight over Kennewick Man begins in 1996, with the discovery of a mystery skeleton in the mud of the Columbia River, near Kennewick, Washington, and, by its end, tells us more about our own strange modern world than it does about the K-man's long lost one.
Chatters recounts the struggle over K-man's remains in fascinating detail. His is a nonfiction work that also provides some of the satisfactions of a mystery and a thriller (so might want to jump over parts of this), as well as an absurdist tragicomedy. The last, thanks mostly to a US Army Corps of Engineers that exhibits all the serious scientific integrity and commitment to due process one might expect if a mad political scientist had managed to join Monty Python's Ministry of Silly Walks to the Spanish Inquisition.
Chatters' first reaction is that the skeleton belongs to some early colonial-era white pioneer; however, upon closer inspection, the remains prove to be much older. The initial examination is barely complete when the federal government, having jurisdiction over the excavation site, begins to seize K-man's remains to turn them over to local Indians.
The government declares that it is carrying out the provisions of the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), a law, according to Chatters, which is "being used by the Indian tribes to reclaim all ancient human skeletons, regardless of their age and often with little or no opportunity allowed for scientific investigation."
As the government begins to close in on K-man, Chatters hurriedly consults another anthropologist, a highly respected forensic competitor, in order to obtain an unbiased second opinion: `Male Caucasian,' she said. `You sure?' I asked. `Easy call,' was the firm response. `The face?' I probed. `White guy.' `Mandible?' `White guy.' ..."
On the day that lawmen were on their way, Chatters carefully arranges, describes and videotapes the bones, in hopes of saving as much scientific information as possible before K-man's ancient story would be boxed up, carried off, and forever buried in a secret location. Chatters stresses the gravity of the archaeological find, being only one of two complete early skeletons from the entire continent.
Chatters' emergency videotaping proves wise, since the government's level of stewardship turns out to be something less than Smithsonian. People, mostly Indians, pay visits to the remains, now kept in an unpadded box, after which some bones are found damaged, others destroyed, others go missing. The invaluable remains are also adulterated with newly introduced bones and various ceremonial materials. And, to obtain radiocarbon samples, the government employs a rotary saw on K-man's leg and foot bones with a feathery lightness of touch that might be more appropriate for hydroelectric damn demolition.
Fortunately, thanks to Chatters and allies, the courts begin holding hearings. But this doesn't stop the Interior Department from plunging ahead, making the determination that, yes, these completely non-Indian-looking bones most certainly must be surrendered to the Indians. On what evidence? Apparently, says Chatters: "geography" and "folklore."
Finally, incredibly, the Corps goes to the fragile archaeological site and dumps upon it 500 tons of rockfill. What possible explanation could they provide? `Protection.' (Bureaucratic Freudian Slip of the Year Award?)
Historically, what finally happened to these Paleo-Americans? Sketchy evidence points to a fertility rate that was only slightly above replacement, which would have made them "extremely vulnerable" to higher-fertility competing groups. (Hmmm, why does this sound familiar?)
This book provides a wonderful case study of a society--o harmonious Mecca of joyous "diversity"--that has become mired in a system of officially enforced racial victimhood, here, Indian division. Scientifically questioning any aspect of it is taboo, although the results can be pretty darn entertaining.
When the press latches onto Chatters' initial comment, that after surveying many faces he found K-man's face to most resemble that of "Star Trek" actor Patrick Stewart, Chatters goes out of his way to tamp down the resulting furor by disabusing anyone of the unscientific notion that K-man could possibly be considered `white.' (Long story short: K-man may predate modern races and represent only one of several waves of earliest migrations from hither and yon.) But after Chatters' sculptor friend, to create a K-man bust, pours over countless worldwide photographs, he finally finds "especially useful a movie that featured Clint Eastwood and Ed Harris ... the same narrow chins, square jaws and hollow cheeks of Kennewick Man."
Okay, think I got it: Cross between actors Patrick Stewart, Clint Eastwood and Ed Harris--but NOT WHITE!
The important thing, of course, is determining the scientific facts. Obviously, European Americans don't need to play a game of Who Got Here First? to know that America is their home, but it is amusing to see how threatened the media and others become when some whites express any racial affinity with Kennewick Man. Of course white people are the only group for whom any expression of ancestral or group pride is automatically considered "hate," "supremacy," or a sure sign that they are feverishly plotting world domination.
The truth about Paleo-Americans will be of special interest to some of European heritage, you know, those who "took the land away from the Indians." Obviously, what happened to the Indians, and whomever they replaced, was tragic, but this piously expressed refrain from liberals would be much more believable if I could find just one who is planning to return his property to the Indians and move back to Europe.
Under a growing barrage of criticism for decades, European Americans can be forgiven if they want to feel some measure of group pride. Pride, not just for possibly sharing some closer kinship with these ancient pioneers, but for the fact that the very concept of bold and unfettered scientific inquiry--in Chatters' case, standing up to legally enforce mythology and bumbling bureaucratic tyranny--is in itself an invention of Europeans.
In short: Fine book, outstanding scientist, brave man.
fair and balanced.......2003-11-07
This is one of the best books I've read. ever. Chatters not only shares his own theories, but he also gives the reader a complete picture of what theories are out there regarding the first Americans. When he recounts the details of the Kennewick man hearings, he doesn't slander those on the other side of the debate, but rather tries to give the reader the best view of what occured, though you can tell that the destructive actions of the corps sadden him. This is one of the easiest and most interesting reads. From the introduction where he theorizes about Kennewick man's death in story format, to the lawsuit over his remains, to the very detailed and great information about the morphology of the skull, and how it is similar to each group that is existent now and how it differs. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in archaeology.
Riveting and well written.......2003-02-13
James Chatters is a professional forensic anthropologist, paleoecologist, and archeologist working in Washington state. As such he became involved in the recent finding of the so-called Kennewick Man and the political furor over the disposition of the remains. The book is an in-depth discussion of almost every aspect of the discovery: the initial find, the socio-political conflict over it, the brief analysis of the remains, and the overall enlightment that it casts on human migrations.
For Native American activists the issue was one of yet another example of dispossession of by those of European descent, this time in the name of science. For "science" here read the "manifest destiny" of the 19th century proponents of the westward expansion that led to a systematic, almost Hitleresque genocide of the indigenous inhabitants of the continent. The active political voices of the Native American activists since the 1960s had led to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) in the 1990s, and the discovery of the skeletal remains of an early American eroded from a river bank in 1996 put the laws to a critical test, one that is still yet to be settled.
For the scientists the issue was of information irretrievably lost to the store of human knowledge about the past. For this issue read "truth" forever vanquished by the "superstition" of the dark side. Certainly in a time when the validity of science education is challenged by every Tom, Dick and Harry with an opinion, when the average person is unable to think critically, when the media are rife with occult nonsense, and when "reality" TV occupies whole evenings of family time one can hardly blame them for suspecting as much!
For myself, I find the research into the human past to be an intriguing pursuit. I read Dr. Chatter's book in about a day, hanging on every word. I have to admit, though, that most of my friends and co-workers consider me an eccentric, so I know for a fact that not every one holds my high opinion of this field of endeavor. I can therefore see why Native American people, given their history with their European neighbors, might consider the analysis of the Kennewick remains as a dangerous effort to once again dispossess them, this time of what they consider to be their history and right of priority in the land.
The book brings into sharp relief that the confrontation was due to two groups of people each approaching the world with their own view and lacking understanding of the perspective of the other. It also points out, just as the brewhaha over the Ice Man in Europe did, just how much a part politics, ego, and media involvement has to do with disputes of this sort. One can only hope that in the future, scientists and Native American groups can work together with greater accord. Certainly what was discovered about the Kennewick man gave me more respect for the closeness of the global human population and for the successful adaptation of the early American people to a difficult set of circumstances.
One of the most interesting things I found from the discussion of the remains of the Kennewick specimen is that the human populations living today are more like one another than they are like their distant predecessors. In short, human evolution, at least on a superficial level, is on-going. Our decedents several thousand years hence will also be different. This was a riveting and well written book.
Who Am I?.......2002-12-15
Where did I come from? Scientists like Dr. Chatters try and peel the layers of a complicated onion in order to answer the 'larger picture'. Having lived in Washington and Oregon among the Yakama and Umatilla people I know that my first reaction to the Kennewick controversy was 'leave the Ancient One alone'! My Native friends insist that their claim to being the original peoples of this continent are being repudiated by the work of Chatters, Owsley and others. After researching for myself I have come to the conclusion that any work on this very sensitive topic is of value. There are no definitive answers now, and perhaps not in our lifetime. Look at the controversy over 'Lucy' in Africa? Science evolves just as people have. Dr. Chatters book is an excellent window on just how complicated 'our' origins are. For my own part, I am of the belief that there is not just ONE ancestor, nor can there be just ONE theory on how the contemporary people of this continent evolved. I don't find Dr. Chatters writings confusing in the least. I only wish I'd had the opportunity to meet him when I lived in Portland and went to several lectures on 'the Ancient One'. I think if I could choose who I would like to sit down with and pick his brain and learn, it would have to be Dr. Chatters. His credentials are above reproach despite the twists media have made concerning his use of a common morphological term 'caucasoid'. I would encourage him to keep digging, keep writing because many of us appreciate the intellectual stimulation our otherwise boring lives deprive us of. Excellent book!
Book Description
Quantum physics is often perceived as a weird and abstract theory, which physicists must use in order to make correct predictions. But many recent experiments have shown that the weirdness of the theory simply mirrors the weirdness of phenomena: it is Nature itself, and not only our description of it, that behaves in an astonishing way. This book selects those, among these typical quantum phenomena, whose rigorous description requires neither the formalism, nor an important background in physics. The first part of the book deals with the phenomenon of single-particle interference, covering the historical questions of wave-particle duality, objective randomness and the boundary between the quantum and the classical world, but also the recent idea of quantum cryptography. The second part introduces the modern theme of entanglement, by presenting two-particle interference phenomena and discussing Bell's inequalities. A concise review of the main interpretations of quantum physics is provided.
Customer Reviews:
A 'MUST BUY' for novices.......2006-07-11
I would not give this a five star rating only because it is not PERFECT! I actually intend to give it a 4 1/2 rating in fact.
I liked this book for four things:
1) This is such a small book. (Lesser the words one speaks, the better to listen).
2) No technical blabbering, but STILL maintains clarity of concepts.
3) Tells about real experiments.
4) One of the latest on the old subject (as of July 2006!).
Now to give an example of the minor defects that I noticed - The Unbalanced Franson's Interferometer explanation could leave the novice reader confused as to why the tiny time difference could not lead to distinguishability. There is nothing in the main text that even hints about this.
All in all, this is a MUST BUY for all 'physics-maths' kind of people who have are new to QM.
Book Description
Virtual Patient Encounters is a breakthrough in EMS education! Users can get real-world prehospital experience without leaving the classroom or home! The Virtual Patient Encounters learning triad - a textbook, interactive patient simulation software, and a study guide that ties everything together - offers a state-of-the-art tool for developing critical thinking skills. Users can apply what they're learning in Mosby's EMT-Intermediate Textbook for the 1999 National Standard Curriculum, 3rd Edition on 15 virtual patients in a variety of prehospital environments. It's an incredible opportunity to make real patient care decisions in a safe environment!
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