Book Description
Chaisson/McMillan's writing style and pedagogically driven art program are recognized as being scientifically accurate yet accessible to non-science majors. The integrated media program contains the market's only E-book. It provides readers with innovative and interactive tools to learn and test their understanding of astronomy concepts. Topics covered include Astronomy and the Universe, Our Planetay System, Stars and Stellar Evolution, Galaxies and Cosmology, and more. For one or two-semester introductory astronomy course.
Customer Reviews:
New Book that was NOT a new Book.......2007-06-08
Simply put - I purchased this Astronomy book through Amazon because the price was the same as elsewhere but I would save on shipping. I expected a NEW book but received a Used Book in good condition.
The Book itself so far seems well laid out and interesting but the course I am taking has just reached the 1/3 mark toward completion.
For the Non-Science Major.......2007-03-08
This book is designed to be the astronomy book that non-science majors would use to meet their one-year of science requirement as part of their undergraduate degree. As such it is written without the mathematics content that would be normal in a course aimed at astronoly or physics students. In addition, this particular book has several advantages. To identify just a few:
1. Throughout the book there is an emphasis on teaching the scientific method. This area has been strengthened in this edition because (I'm guessing) the current attempts by the un-intelligent design people to disparage scientific theories.
2. Revised to include the latest discoveries being made by the Mars rovers and the down grading of poor Pluto to a minor planet.
3. Updating the current theories regarding dark matter and dark energy.
In summary this is a well written, well illustrated text, ideally suited for the non-scientists.
Astronomy Today 5th edition.......2006-03-11
I have had a lifetime love of Astronomy but have lacked the mathmatical background for a thorough understanding. Most popular books on the subject rarely cover the field in the manner that I desire. Astronomy Today is a textbook for a beginning course in astronomy at the college level and does, in fact, cover a great deal of information without the need for mathmatical knowledge. The authors express their ideas and information in clear, concise language and clearly manifest an enthusiasm for their subject. I have enjoyed the book immensely.
A Paradox of Blind Astronomers!.......2005-06-23
This is an excellent textbook, but I deducted one star (from a possible five-star rating) because of the absurd comments made by the authors in the beginning of the book. In this fourth edition of Astronomy Today, a textbook published by Prentice Hall for college students, the authors open the very first chapter with the following statements:
"Of all the scientific insights attained to date, one stands out boldly: Earth is neither central nor special. We inhabit no unique place in the universe. Astronomical research, especially within the past few decades, strongly suggests that we live on what seems to be an ordinary rocky planet called Earth, one of the nine known planets orbiting an average star called the Sun, a star near the edge of a huge collection of stars called the Milky Way Galaxy, which is one galaxy among countless billions of others spread throughout the observable universe."
Huh!? Earth isn't special? Compare the other planets in our Solar System to Earth and tell us it isn't special. And Earth is "...an ordinary rocky planet..."? It's the only planet we know of with vast oceans of liquid water, a breathable atmosphere, lush vegetation, and a spectacular collection of life forms. The authors of this textbook must have been "out to lunch" when they wrote that trite introduction, or... this is just another deliberate attempt by "philosophers of gobbledygook" to strip the Earth of its special place in the universe and to squash any special characteristics that may differentiate it from everything else in the cosmos. I strongly suspect the latter viewpoint is the correct one.
The fact is the Earth is indeed a very special place, and the Sun is a very special star. In fact, the Sun-Earth relationship represents a very special arrangement that permits life to thrive upon our planet. Mercury, Venus and Mars may be nothing more than ordinary rocky planets, but Earth is truly unique from all the other planets in our Solar System, and may be truly unique in all the universe.
I stand by my initial rating of the textbook: 4 stars and an excellent read. I just have a wee bit of a problem with blind astronomers.
A joy to read!.......2005-02-18
This book is really outstanding! It contains 757 pages of text (not counting the preface and appendix), about 480 (mostly quite smallish) photos, some 400 drawings/figures/illustrations and almost 50 tables. The writing style is very clear, not at all dry or overtly technical. It is a joy to read this book. I know of no other book that clarifies all kind of astronomical subjects as thoroughly and understandably as this book (and I did read many books on astronomy.....). Highly recommended!
Average customer rating:
- A long time ago..., A more innocent time for Star Wars and Comic Books.
- Everything it should be!
- All New Adventures, Some Great, Some Not So Great
- Nostalgic and Corny
- Weak movie adaptation improves afterward
|
Doomworld (Star Wars: A Long Time Ago..., Book 1)
Roy Thomas ,
Archie Goodwin , and
Don Glut
Manufacturer: Dark Horse
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Comic
 Comics & Graphic Novels | Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery & Horror | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Magic | Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery & Horror | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1569717540 |
Book Description
Dark Horse Comics is proud to present Classic Star Wars: A Long Time Ago... featuring classic Star Wars stories not seen in over twenty years! Originally printed by Marvel Comics, these stories have been recolored and are sure to please Star Wars fans both new and old. Volume 1 contains stories from the original Marvel run like the riveting classics "Eight for Aduba-3," "Star Search," and the smash hit of June 1978 "Doomworld!"
Customer Reviews:
A long time ago..., A more innocent time for Star Wars and Comic Books........2007-01-17
In 1977 Star Wars arrived in theaters and quickly fired the imaginations of millions of young people. In a world without cable TV, DVD's, and home computers, Star Wars fans looking to satisfy their "hunger" turned to the Marvel Comics adaption. The Star Wars comics of the late 70's and early 80's were much more than "just" comics to my generation.
In the 1970's Marvel put in a great effort to bring many popular science ficton films to the comic book format. Marvel had already released "planet of the apes" and "2001: a space odyssey" and were in the process of delivering an outstanding "Logan's Run" adaption when Star Wars arrived. There had not been a film in over a decade that was better suited to become a comic book than Star Wars.
Marvels' "Star Wars" was destined to become a classic, but issue number one was something of a false start. The issue featured a rough and somewhat "experimental" style of artwork. They quickly changed direction with issue number two and it was much smoother sailing from that point forward. But the folks at Marvel didn't have a great track record of producing excellent "non-superhero" content, so the odds were against them when it came to taking the Star Wars series BEYOND the movie adaption.
Some younger Star Wars fans may judge these stories to be corny, bizarre, poorly written and even poorly illustrated efforts. But I can tell you that these comics contain the TRUE spirit of the time and the true spirit of what Star Wars meant to my generation. There is a certain magic within the pages of these comics that can never be fully appreciated by anyone who has come to know Star Wars via Six films and nearly 30 years worth of other media and literature. I'm not claiming that "younger" Star Wars fans will not enjoy this collection, only that it might take an effort to "understand" where this stuff came from.
The comics represented in this compilation were created during a time of great imagination and wonder, a time filled with "a new hope". These comic books are a great way for current fans to take a journey back in time, to a Star Wars universe that was still fresh and unexplored. If you're an original fan, you may feel (as I do) that George Lucas has since destroyed much of his own wonderful creation. Perhaps these stories will stand as a reminder of a much more innocent Star Wars universe that once existed, "a long time ago...".
Product review:
This is a great effort by Dark Horse to pay tribute to the original marvel comic books. The coloring has been revamped and looks bright and quite amazing. It's certainly nice to have all of the original issues contained within seven "easy access" volumes. Well worth the price!
The only cool feature missing from these volumes (that can be found in the original issues), is the "Star Words" page. This page featured "letters" sent in from fans and readers. Today, it's certainly a real treat to read some of those letters which help to demonstrate what fans were thinking about Star Wars and this adaption all those years ago. The missing "Star Words" pages certainly do not detract from the enjoyment of the comic book, but would have been a nice addition!
Also, while Dark Horse claims that all of the coloring is 100% faithful to the original artwork, this isn't entirely true. Cover art from each issue is reproduced within each volume. The cover of Issue #14 has been drastically altered. It originally had an AMAZING colored background behind the drawn warriors and was one of the best covers of the Marvel comics run. I'm only guessing that Dark Horse was not able to faithfully reproduce the incredible effect from the original cover and instead simply made it a "white" background. It's still worth tracking down the original comic just for the great cover design for that issue!
JM
Everything it should be!.......2006-04-23
This is the first book in the marvel
star wars series and I enjoyed it.
It shows all of A New Hope and after.
This book also has full vibrant color that makes the pictures stand out.
The only thing I didn't like was that they talked about a old Jedi named Don-Wan Kihotay teaming up with Han solo.
And then in the next issue they just make him disappear and he was a cool character.
I liked in this book how they showed Chewbacca looking like a monkey.
Jabba the Hutt looks weird too.
In one issue Chewbacca is forced to shoot Han and it's really suspenseful.
P.S. Don-Wan has a yellow lightsaber, weird.
All New Adventures, Some Great, Some Not So Great.......2005-12-31
Volume 1 is the weakest of the "A Long Time Ago" collections, but the quality of the stories shows a trend toward improvement. Marvel's adaption of the original "Star Wars" is passable, with wide variations in the quality of the artwork. The first story arc, concentrating on Han and Chewbacca after the movie, is dreadful.
The series gets better with the Waterworld/Crimson Jack stories, and really hits its stride around issue 16. The stories set on The Wheel (based around the schemes of Leia's old nemesis from the Senate and gung-ho Imperial Commander Strom) are quite entertaining. A fun look back at the comics I remember from my childhood, collected in a nice trade paperback format.
Nostalgic and Corny.......2003-12-26
Before the days of Dark Horse there was: THIS STUFF. On the one hand, this is what we once had. On the other hand, some of it was really corny. Sometimes the art was pretty awful. Other times it was the story line. Yet, through it all it was a lot like a grade B movie in comic book form; fun to read though you could never take it too seriously.
Some of the ideas were pure corn. How about a giant carnivorous rabbit (Jaxxon). The Don Wan Kioti character was right out of "The Man of La Mancha." There are other examples, but these suffice to give you a rough idea.
In spite of all the corn, these things are fun to read. The stories take me back to the days of yore when comics really were oriented towards young boys rather than adults, and we ate these things up. Of course, these were what we had, and we had no comparison to the quality graphics in todays comics. Many people in the industry are loath to call them comics.
While the book is a bit pricey, on the other hand you do get 20 comics. The book is pretty thick and the reproductions are good. You have to be a hard-core Star Wars fan or nostalgic for original Star Wars comics to want these, but for either of those groups, enjoy!
Weak movie adaptation improves afterward.......2003-09-09
Howard Chaykin is one of my favorite, if not the favorite comic book artists/writers. That is why it is so disappointing to see his work in this compilation. It is incredulous that the man who produced the gorgeous, crisp, clean art of American Flagg was responsible for the sloppy, hurried art presented in his issues. After Carmine Infantino takes over though, the art improves markedly.
The first six issues are an adaptation of the movie, although it bears much more resemblance to the novelization as it includes such things as Luke seeing his friends on Tatooine, Luke being a part of Blue group rather than Red. The first cover features a red-headed Princess Leia and a green Darth Vader in a mistake of galactic proportions. Also editing errors are rife throughout the adaptation with weapons being called different names throughout and not often matching what they were called in the movie. I can only hope they rushed these out 1 a week the quality was so low.
After we get through the movie adaptation things improve, though for a while we get some really bad editing. Names spelled differently in different panels for one thing. Still though, despite the improvement in plotting there are still some laughably bad ideas such as Don-Wan Kihotay(also spelled Don-Wan Kioti) the Man of La Mancha Jedi ripoff.
There is continual improvement though and we eventually get to see some nice, plausible adventures of what may have happened to our heroes after the destruction of the Death Star. Chewbacca though never really looks much like Chewbacca.
Two stars for the beginning, and the continual improvement brings it up to three stars.
Book Description
The myth and folklore of ancestral peoples around the world hints at a vast cycle of time, with alternating Dark and Golden Ages. Plato called it the Great Year. Long believed to be a fairytale, there is now new astronomical evidence to show it has a basis in fact. Moreover, because it is caused by the acceleration of our Sun around another star, we learn that the Earth should soon be carried into a region of space that will have a beneficial affect on our atmosphere, nudging mankind into a higher age of consciousness.
Lost Star of Myth and Time weaves together some of the latest archaeological evidence with cutting-edge astronomy to reveal a history of the world that finally fits with myth, folklore and the archaeological record. While this book explores some of the most interesting aspects of a once advanced civilization that covered the Earth, it is really about what happens to the Earth and consciousness as our solar system moves through space in the mysterious motion known as the "precession of the equinox". This astronomical phenomenon has since Newton been attributed to local gravitational forces wobbling the Earth's axis. Lost Star now shows us in no uncertain terms that the Earth's axis does not change orientation relative to objects inside the solar system at the same rate that it changes orientation to objects outside the solar system, meaning precession must be due to our Sun's binary motion around another star.
Chapter by chapter it becomes clear that ancient cultures knew of precession, used it as the clock of the ages, understood it to be due to the solar system's motion through space, and realized this subjects the Earth to a cycle of waxing and waning stellar influences. It is these forces that affect our magnetosphere, ionosphere and indirectly create the larger seasons of the Great Year. As you will see this not only gives cause for a major rethink of human history and potential, but indicates we are approaching a tipping point in the awakening of consciousness.
Customer Reviews:
highly speculative and non-scientific.......2007-09-26
What defines civilization? Is it the magnitude of knowledge, or tools, or transportation, or commodities, or peace, or all of these? Some writers have postulated the easiest method to ascertain a civilization's height is sift through their garbage dumps. There is some predisposition to believe a civilization is more developed if the refuse shows signs of complexity in art or construction technique. Archeologists have sought in vain to find records in the dust bearing the knowledge of deceased civilizations. The best they have found is records of commerce or letters between merchants or rulers.
Walter Cruttenden makes a pretty good case for our sun being a companion star in a binary or trinary system. And he presents some curious research on the finer influence of energy upon living tissue. But the idea of information stored in rocks or the earth's surface stretches credulity. The storage of information involves the imprinting of specific, organized patterns. To date, no one has noticed patterns of any kind (geological phenomena aside) residing or emitted from rocks or soil. I submit that the mark of a truly advanced civilization is it's ability to record and PRESERVE its knowledge for future generations. What would be the point of life if what is learned is carried to the grave? Isaac Asimov wrote an interesting story of a world which self-destructed caused by superstition, each time all the planets and moons occulted the sun. After a great number of cycles some information was preserved, enough that those of learning could disseminate to subsequent generations the discovery of the cause for periodic occultation, as well as the technical knowledge gained since the previous conflagration.
Mankind, in order to survive, must have transportation. The nomadic way of life has never produced a culture or civilization of advanced degree. It may contain a significant body of knowledge, but the passing of that knowledge verbally and by myth are the least effective of tools. The Ancients Walter speaks of may have had some knowledge of mathematics, astronomy, and various technologies, but they certainly weren't highly developed when it comes to technology, nor do they evidence anything of the Calculus we have today.
The Ice Man of 3500 BC may have owned an axe of highly refined tool grade copper, but did that knowledge die with him? Where are the others like it? Today we may not know how to refine and harden copper to that level, but apparently that knowledge was not widely disseminated by the Ancients either.
Did these Ancients levitate all those giant megaliths around like Tibetan monks in meditation? The scientific investigation into Stonehenge shows that those stones were moved by raw muscle-power which was destructive to bone and sinew. The Sumerians may have had beautiful gardens, sewers, tools of metal, medical technique, and the wheeled cart. They also had war. But none of it was as highly developed as we have today. No evidence has come forth demonstrating widespread education, high technologies in metals, glass, oil derivatives, medicine, art, and transportation. All of these advancements over the basic knowledge the Ancients had have happened in less than 200 years. It is exceedingly difficult to overlay this explosive growth with the Cycle of the Ages as Walter presents it. It doesn't fit the gradual cycle curve controlled by an interlaced binary companion star.
We may have lost some of the ancient knowledge of more refined energies, but no civilization of the past can rival the developments in knowledge dissemination and preservation, technology and artistic materials as we have today. Where is the evidence that a Pavaroti could be heard and observed not only in real time thousands of miles distant, but repeatedly as often as desired? Where is there evidence that man has brought back soil from the Moon, along with the technology to transport him there and back? Where is there evidence that the Golden Age of the Ancients had pictures of the surface of Mars, of asteroidal impacts upon Jupiter, of those tiny light sources in the sky really being galaxies of endless number as far as we can see?
The Ancients may have known many things we have yet to discover. The Spinx and Giza pyramid may forever remain a mystery as to how, when, and why they were constructed. But their "Golden" civilization does not hold a candle to the opportunities of learning, mobility, health, and leisure of today. It has been estimated that 70% of all the people who have lived on this earth are alive today. Surely, we do not know the extent of population on the earth back 10,000 years and more. But this merely begs the point: any advanced civilization will leave a trail of evidence indicating that of all advancements, chief will be reliable record keeping. The Egyptians will remain embarrassed over the mystery of the Sphinx and Pyramids. Ralph Ellis can go rooting around the north slope of K2 for the fabled Hall of Records. But the pattern that has emerged to date indicates no knowledge more advanced than we have today lies anywhere on this planet, nor were there ever any people who had greater comforts and self-fulfillment than today. Nor were they able to preserve their "advanced" knowledge against the Decline.
I'll trade the stone commode or bath-house for a modern flusher and sauna in a thermally efficient, heated room. If the Ancients were masters at canals and waterways it couldn't be due to unwillingness to use advanced technology over stone building. Walter claims there is evidence of widespread prosperity, but that is an unwarranted conclusion about a culture based on digs. I'll take the modern instruments used to do cranial surgery (which replaces the entire bone in its original location) over the crude Egyptian trephine any day.
Walter contradicts himself in many places trying to fit the eccentric binary orbit into the gradual loss and accretion of knowledge. He attempts to account for the changes in life span via the precession cycle, without investigating research into the errors in the Bible and his other sources of ancient longevity. It is amazing in one place he can assert that Terra Preta pottery is more than 10,000 years old, yet high tech metals, plastics, glass, and ceramics couldn't possibly last for more than a few hundred years. Archeologists dig up clay inscripted tablets from several thousand years back which are still legible! The obvious conclusion points to the absence of such technologies because nothing like ours has ever existed in the past. To assert that the Ancients figured out how to recycle any advanced metals, glass, plastic and chemicals back into the earth without a trace and learned to live without it is absurd. Nearly in the same breath he points to evidence of metal working discovered inside coal and stone, and stone blocks in an Oklahoma coal mine that survived several millennia. His stroll through the beaches and bluffs of southern California finding assorted trash is hardly equivalent to unearthing evidence of civilization several meters into the earth like Mexico City, the Cave of a Thousand Buddhas, and a thousand other digs.
The main subject Walter overlooks in his presentation is the prevalence of war in all ages. We have not found evidence of any civilization in ancient times without it. Walter also does not mention the Caste systems of India and China which extends back into the Golden Age he so glorifies. Nor does he treat in detail civilizations declining because of catastrophism. People who build with stone (megalithic or otherwise) don't recover from severe climate changes or deluges in short order.
While Walter presents reasonable and cogent research by professional scientists, his own approach is not scientific. Like much of the phony astronomical science of today, Walter has his process backwards, and leads the reader to believe that our world civilization's decline and rise are explained by association of Precession with ancient myth and folklore (ancient "science"). To him it is a forgone conclusion.
His book contains many interesting discoveries. But his speculations, assumptions, and premature conclusions simply do not hold as an explanation for the fall and rise of this planet's civilizations.
Not as good as It could be.......2007-08-08
When I first read the synopsis of this book, I thought this is the book I always wanted to write.
After reading it I can summarize my feeling in just one word: disappointment. This book is about the connection between the cosmic cycles of the traditions and the precession. According to Walter Cruttenden there must be a companion star out-there. Why? First: because there are some astronomical problems with the precession (for more details see: "Binary Research Institute" web-page). Second: this is a chance to give material reason of the ascending and descending ages (golden, silver, bronze, iron). How: via electro-magnetic waves. If the companion stars nears our Sun we become enlightened, when it goes away we fall into the dark age. (Sounds weird?)
The other planet hypothesis is not new, but mostly scientifically unproved. The best theory I have ever read is from Woelfli and Baltensperger. This book is contains some vague predictions about the size and distance of this object, but the Sirius would be the perfect fit (as the book suggests). Only some very new laws of the universe should be discovered, and we will understand the importance of Sirius in ancient mythologies.
Until then I will have time to write my own book.
Anyway, this is not a bad book, it's like a work of Graham Hancock. Terra Preta was the most interesting for me, that would be worth a book on it's own.
Sun has a twin ?.......2007-03-09
I was little bit sceptic when i order this book from Amazon. Lost STAR ? huh, this is ridiculous. So i start reading and page after page it take my attention. I pass whole "Accepting truth" process during first chapters. Author did extraordinary work, collecting those facts/ideas/myths. It is easy to read, easy to understand, so don't be affraid about the flood of facts. Author really know his customers (readers). So everything is served well.
I love part about the "Yugas"( world ages ), but maybe some of the parts are little bit short, i was missing some of the major ideas/facts about the ages. I understand it was not the main line of the book, but for some not well informed readers it might be little bit "vonDaniken" style.
But i really recommend this book to all 2012 scientists and researchers.
A must-have book for any thoughtful reader.......2007-01-10
Certainly one of the best books that I've read in recent years. Extraordinarily thoughtful review of the evidence that indicates that energy provided by the sun and its twin star affects our intelligence. In turn, this cyclical variation in intelligence results in cycles of dark ages followed by golden ages. Words fail me as I try to describe this remarkable book. Most highly recommended.
Lost Star--Dark Star?.......2006-09-08
Walter Cruttenden,
Lost Star of Myth and Time
(St. Lynn's Press, Pittsburgh) 2005
Paperback, xxii+340 pages
ISBN 0-9767631-1-7
Andy Lloyd
The Dark Star
(Timeless Voyager, Santa Barbara) 2005
Paperback, xiv+304 pages
ISBN 1-892264-18-8
Critiqued by Frederic Jueneman
Here is a pair of scenarios, very old ones in many respects, to be sure, but motifs that take the reader on multidisciplinary journeys through space and time, of history and cosmology, and of culture and tradition. Regular readers of such literature will find that all of these groups plow pretty much in the same celestial fields. Notwithstanding, in a somewhat eclectic exposition one author (Cruttenden) come uncomfortably close to what this reviewer regards as new age occultism. But then, don't we all take a lot of things on faith and hope.
Cruttenden himself is a nonprofessional archeo-astronomer who builds and relies on earlier authors, both contemporary and historical, as well as assembling his own cache of mythic material to fortify his case that our Sun is part of a double-star system which orbits one another in approximately the same period as the Precession of the Equinox--a polar retrograde wobble of Earth currently figured at 25,770 years. Moreover, as the most original concept in the book, the author argues that the binary motions and gravitational influence of the two-star system cause the precession itself.
In like manner, science writer Andy Lloyd takes inspiration from Zecharia Sitchin's ancient Babylonian interpretations although with marked reservations, while also delving into myth and alternative science. Yet he generally tends to follow es¬tablishment guidelines in giving credence to his argument for a solar binary system. His major theme is based on the cliff-like Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt of asteroidal objects and comets that drops off rather precipitously beyond some 45 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun--one AU being the Earth-Sun distance--a gap that ostensibly extends several hundred AU to the inner boundary of the the¬oretical comet-filled Oort Cloud beyond.
The Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt was initially proposed in 1943 by the British researcher Kenneth Edgeworth and later resurrected by American as¬tronomer Gerard Kuiper in 1951. This gap is argumentatively considered by Lloyd to be swept out by what might eventually be found to be a so-called brown dwarf star and its retinue of planetesimals, which have yet to be observed.
Such brown dwarfs were first theoretically described by radioastronomer Jill Tartar in 1975 as small, very dense and dim planet-like stars, which are radiating mainly in the infrared. They were called "brown" to differentiate them from the already designated black, red, and white dwarfs, although brown dwarfs were ultimately found to glow magenta to reddish.
Cruttenden's book, on the one hand, despite being replete with physical phenomena and apocalyptic mythology, also attempts to reinforce his earlier mercantile DVD exposé with additional detail from mythic and mystic lore by enumerating and expanding on the four stages of the Yuga ages: The primeval Kali Yuga, typifying the dark age of iron from which we have just emerged in the endless Hindu cycles of time, and our now having recently entered into the Dwapara Yuga, or bronze age, with the increasingly enlightening Treta and Satya Yugas, of the respective silver and golden ages, still some thousands of years ahead in the distant future. Our increased enlighten¬ment is apparently predicated on this approaching Lost Star, which endows mankind with field-induced expanded mental capacity. There are ascending and descending phases of these ages, the divya or half-yugas that comprise something over 12,000 years each, delineating the half-cycles of the equinoctial precession: The rise and fall of mankind's intellectual proclivities.
The Lost Star spends an inordinate number of pages on the significance of these ages on human culture, where a high point in human capacity and competence was reached some 11,500 years ago, and has gone downhill ever since, or at least until the end of the medieval period just a few centuries ago. According to Cruttenden, the lowest point--the Kali Yuga--was from about 700 BCE to around 500 CE; however, no allowance was made for the global renaissance of the 6th century BCE, where religious, philosophical, and intelletual thought burgeoned throughout the civilized world; a flourishing which gave rise to the received wisdom of India. Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Greece. This may have been an aberration according to his scenario, but the excep¬tion does test the rule.
This is where the two authors differ, in that Lloyd is less enthusiastic than Cruttenden about the mysticism surrounding recorded events in human history. However, both authors do pay tribute to Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend, who themselves had furrowed their pioneering groundwork of mythic lore by highlighting the Precession of the Equinoxes, and who also complained, "It goes without saying that the still more modern habit of replacing `culture' with `society' has blocked the last narrow path to understanding history. Our ignorance not only remained vast, but became pretentious as well."
Both of our authors under review bemoan the fact that astronomical ardor doesn't include many who, either through ignorance or hubris, even bother to consider an otherwise "unknown" or "unseen" massive companion to our solar system in the light of mounting evidence, other than minuscule icy worlds such as the recently discovered Quaoar, Sedna and Varuna, inter alia. But, as we all know, tradition is a very viscous medium.
Late 19th and early 20th century cosmologists, who had studied the perturbations on Uranus and relatively newly discovered Neptune (1846), determined that beyond these planets there was another massive body disturbing their motions; but, the discovery of tiny Pluto in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh didn't account for the expected discrepancy, although Voyager 2 in 1969 supposedly settled the cosmological question by assigning Neptune a greater mass than was previously reported.
Only Lloyd referred to the earlier research of the late Hughes Aircraft mathematician John P. Bagby, assisted by his wife Loretta L. Bagby, who were intrigued by planetary perturbations that seemed to indicate what they termed a Massive Solar Companion (MSC), situated out of the plane of the ecliptic in the direction of Sagittarius. Bagby, who was well known to this reviewer, initially and tentatively proposed this MSC back in 1972 but only formally and obliquely published his results some years later in a study related to earthquake periodicity. However, his investigation seemed to indicate that such an MSC, or perhaps a distributed mass in Lagrangian orbits, might be also located in the direction of Sirius. Bagby postulated Lagrange distributions for several of the orbital parameters, which much like the Trojans in Jupiter's orbit may either lead or lag the gas giant by 60°.
Sagittarius, however, would turn out to be a "star-crossed" option since it is well within our most abundant view of the Milky Way galaxy, which leaves astronomers looking into the headlights of millions of stars that would make finding a dim body among such stellar traffic toilsome at best. The latest IRAS (InfraRed Astronomical Survey) satellite exploration of the heavens showed an excess of 200,000 dim suns within relatively short telescopic range that are available for study. So, where do those who want to look decide to seek such a candidate star? In the other direction, of course, where there isn't quite so much glare. The comparatively open celestial sectors of Orion or Canis Major will do nicely.
Interestingly, one of Bagby's major postulated orbits had a period of 1467.6 years, which is uncannily close to the so-called Egyptian Sothic period of some 1460 years, which makes an enticingly roundabout connection with Sirius. This reviewer had corresponded at length with Bagby over this observation, and subsequently copies of his summary were distributed to his colleagues.
Sirius, in Canis Major, visible in winter months just to the left (east) of Orion in the celestial sphere, turns out to be a candidate "lost" star for Cruttenden's argument, despite its 8.6 lightyear distance and -1.43 magnitude brilliance, making it the brightest nighttime star in the heavens. It is Cruttenden's nominee for a root cause of Earth's precession, because of some residual resonant effect, as well as Sirius' own unique proper motion. It is this singular proper motion, which remarkably is in the direction of our own locale in the galaxy that keeps it almost stationary over the centuries in its annual heliacal rising despite its gradual transit across the constellations.
Sirius has risen heliacally on almost the same Julian date for the past 4000 years, and is currently moving out of Canis Major. Here, however, Cruttenden makes an oblique reference to the calendar reform of Julius Caesar, whereas the Julian calendar used in the astronomical community was devised by Joseph Justus Scaliger (1540-1609), whose own calendar reform was published in 1583, one year after the Gregorian amendment devised by the Jesuit astronomer Christopher Clavius was instituted by Pope Gregory XIII. Scaliger's formula, however, using days instead of years, is called the Julian Day Count--a practice still in use by astronomers today and named after his father, Julius Caesar Scaliger.
Both authors had scrutinized ancient literature, which claimed that in ancient times this star was red in color, which Sirius currently is definitely not. However, up until about 500 AD, observers did record Sirius as reddish in color. If, in counter-argument, it had been something akin to Betelgeuse, which is a bloated bright red-orange star of 0.7 magnitude in Orion, north and somewhat west of Sirius, then sometime in the distant future we may be treated to a shedding of its reddish envelope, exposing a bright white star within.
As an aside, an intriguing point was made by Cruttenden that Sirius' own incredibly dense white dwarf companion, Sirius B, orbits in front of its parent star every 50 years, which it did in 1989 as observed and recorded by Canadians Karl-Heinz and Uwe Homann, and as it did so Earth's daily rotation slowed down by a full second over the course of this transit, returning to normal after the event. If this is found to be verified, then it also appears to suggest that gravitational waves travel at light velocity as well. However, we won't have this particular opportunity again until around 2039.
The Dogon peoples in West Africa had their legend about a massive diminutive and unseen companion of Sirius that had a 50-year relationship with the parent star, supposedly well before it was known to astronomers, according to historian Robert Temple. In the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, our hero has a dream in which he is drawn to a heavy star that cannot be lifted--an indirect reference to Sirius B.
One might also speculate that, by the mechanism of "accretion disk accumulation," the massive gravity of the dwarf Sirius B may have stripped its parent of a conjectured red envelope within own our historical past, fomenting a nova, and revealing the brilliant star we see today. This, moreover, is in contrast and contradiction to what Cruttenden described. We might not expect this of the red giant Betelgeuse, since it doesn't seem to have such a dense companion. But since Sirius does, it leaves open the question: Could Sirius actually have under¬one such a nova event within our own recorded historical past? Say, prior to 500 AD?
Cruttenden also makes the point that the Sun's angular momentum is almost entirely tied up in its planetary family, and argues that this runs counter to known physical laws for a solitary stellar body, but bodes favorably for a binary system where such momentum is focused and normalized with another gravitational source. The period of revolution for our binary is considered equivalent to the Precession of the Equinox, based on the resonant effect due to the angular curvature of the mutually orbiting systems, and which is the crux of Cruttenden's hypothesis.
Others, as UC Berkeley physicist Richard A. Muller, who also opt for a binary star system of our very own, prefer a 26-million-year orbit, because over Earth's geological history there have been periodic upheavals and extinctions coincident with this cycle. This is the "Nemesis" star of media note, although Muller thought that it might be a red or brown dwarf. Lloyd is more modest in his reasoning for a 3600-year orbit, more in keeping with Zecheria Sitchin's scenario, thereby keeping it within the confines of the Oort cloud within our own outer solar system, and sweeping out the void beyond the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt. (This reviewer may have to rescan some of Sitchin's endless writings to see if something critically important was inadvertently missed.)
Evidence for high-culture ancient civilizations abound in both the Old World and Asia. This is in addition to ley lines, stonehenges of various sorts, earthenwork mounds and pyramids scattered around the globe, and foundations of cities with no apparent prior historic past, such as found in Sumer. And, since the discoveries of Cornell geologist Charles F. Hartt in 1871, such evidence also surfaced in South America. The extremely rich, renewable soil of myriads of scattered pockets of what is termed Terre Preta do Indio (Indian Black Earth) throughout Amazonia, from Bolivia to Venezuela, has made archeologists sit up and take notice. While most of the Amazon basin is infertile "green desert," known as Oxisol, some ten percent comprises this extremely valuable and sought-after productive loam, which is also characterized by the multi-stratigraphic inclusion of abundant ceramic shards that indicate a sophisticated fire-savvy culture as early as 9000 BCE. This is in contrast, for example, to ancient abattoirs found by archeologists around the world, who indiscriminately consider them to be ritual sacrificial sites by primitive peoples who were overly concerned with religious practices.
If ancient Old and New World civilizations had been decimated by some periodic global cataclysms, it doesn't augur happily for Cruttenden's prognostication of the upcoming ages of enlightenment coinciding with the pending approach of another stellar body nearer to our solar system. But notwithstanding, if Cruttenden and Lloyd, and Muller as well, are all justified in their estimations, perhaps we are not merely a member of a binary star system, but conceivably part of a ternary or even a multiple star complex.
The Sumero-Babylonian astronomers and scribes, who had meticulously recorded disasters as they were observed, aren't given much credence by today's know-it-alls, who relegate most all such "myths" to the dustbins of legendary history. The Jesuit scholar Francis X. Kugler, who pioneered the study of ancient "star wars" (sternkampf) did give these ancients some credit, but seems to be ignored except for a few researchers outside the pale of academic science and history. Kugler's two-volume opus, Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel ("Astrography and Astralatry in Babylon"--literally, star-mapping and star-worship), did nevertheless question the competence of Mesopotamian astronomers before the reign of Nabonassar in the mid-8th century BCE because of anomalies in their calculations, but before he died left the door open for further investigation. And, Zecheria Sitchin evidently was also influenced by and receptive to these anomalies mentioned by Kugler, resulting in his aggregation of books on the subject, which ideas were later taken up by Lloyd with alternative explanations. Cruttenden is otherwise occupied with Great Cycles over the ages.
Nibiru, of Sumerian myth, is the name of the red star that entered the ancient Mesopotamian night sky, and was equated with Marduk, the god supreme of Sumer. Was this red star the Surya of Sanskrit texts, the Sothis of the Greeks, the Sopdet of the Egyptians, the Al Shi'ra of the Arab world, the Lost Star of Cruttenden, the Dark Star of Lloyd, the Venus of Velikovsky?
There are many more such mysteries to be solved, both here on Earth and in our night skies. And, both Cruttenden and Lloyd have given us something of an awareness of the interdisciplinary aspects of approaching some of these mythic enigmas from widely differing, sometimes opposing, and of course puzzling perspectives. Accordingly, this overlapping critique is basically in consideration of both of these interesting if not persuasive books. However, although each is recommended for their individual merits, this reviewer suggests that each potential reader make up his or her own mind as to which author comes closest to one's own personal inclination.
Average customer rating:
- Marvels Ignorance and You
- Classic Marvel Star Wars
- Solid Improvement
- Green Rabbits and Cyborg Bounty Hunters...
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Dark Encounters (Star Wars: A Long Time Ago..., Book 2)
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ASIN: 1569717850 |
Book Description
Star Wars: A Long Time Ago... features classic Star Wars stories not seen in over twenty years! Originally printed by Marvel Comics, these stories have been re-colored using today's computer technology, giving "old" work a fresh face. Volume 2 collects issues of the original Marvel run and contains such riveting classics as "Crucible" and the unforgettable "What Ever Happened to Jabba the Hut?"
Customer Reviews:
Marvels Ignorance and You.......2006-09-10
Like the name of the review suggests dont let Marvels ignorance of Star Wars hinder your purchase of this item. Based on what we know now of Star Wars the stories in this volume will seem kind of strange and a tad weak. Truthfully there are a quite a few really good stories in this volume, including the Clone Wars Obi-Wan story that is included. Its pretty cool to read a story made in '78 about events that we finally saw and read about today (The Clone Wars).
Another great story but very strange is the introduction of Jabba the HuT (yes one T) For any Star Wars fan it should be interesting how Jabba the Hutt had evolved to the slug we see in ROTJ. In this one he is anyting but what we expected hes a Humanoid with tusks. Hes rich and he even has underlings that do his dirty buisness and its kind of cool to see him in such a light.
This is a must read collection for any true Star Wars fan
Classic Marvel Star Wars.......2004-02-03
I read the first volume in this series, "Doomworld," and enjoyed it, but thought it was a bit corny and too cartoonish in places. I was surprised and pleased that the comics got much better with time.
A good portion of this set of 19 comics revolves around the Tagge family, who generally opposes Darth Vader, but also opposes the rebellion. Baron Tagge even hopes to supplant Darth Vader himself, though we know where such schemes end. In "Doom Mission," we find Baron Tagge has created a space station within the stormy atmosphere of the gas giant Yavin where Tie fighters launch attacks against the rebel base on the fourth moon. This story is quite creative with how Baron Tagge created the space station, how it was discovered and how it was eventually attacked.
There are quite a few creative moments in the various stories. In a series of three stories, "The Jawa Express," "Saber Clash," and "Thunder in the Stars," we see the Tagge family test and implement an interesting device that freezes anything between implanted towers. The Tagge family uses this device as a weapon against rebel forces.
In one of the most creative stories, "Riders in the Void," we find Luke and Leia have jumped into the void between galaxies. In one of the emptiest places in the universe Luke and Leia discover a unique, organic space ship with only one inhabitant, who is marginally insane. The ship and its inhabitant have an interesting and unique history, and there are moments when I wondered how Luke and Leia were going to escape.
Creature creation was similarly unique and better than in the first 20 comics of "Doomworld." In "The Long Hunt/A Duel of Eagles" we meet the winged people of Skye. In "Cavern of the Crawling Death" we learn about stone mites that destroy everything they contact as they eat it.
There are a few departures from the Star Wars universe as we know it today that are forgivable given that the second two Star Wars movies had yet to be released. We see a Jabba the Hut very different from the slug-like creature we came to know and loathe. We also see the continuing romance between Luke and Leia, though we also know that they are brother and sister. Yet, the general tone of the stories fits well within the Star Wars universe, and the astute reader can see some of the substantial creativity yet to come.
If you read "Doomworld" and liked it, you'll find that "Dark Encounters" is substantially better and more interesting. The quality of the stories is still lower than the general caliber of the Dark Horse stories, but some of them are very creative and interesting. For those readers that look back fondly on memories of comics from the 60s and 70s, these are the types of stories that you remember well. Enjoy!
Solid Improvement.......2003-09-20
3.5 stars actually.
The artwork, and the plotting improves dramatically in this second collection of Marvel stories. Unlike most of the first collection, these stories mostly feel like they could take place in the Star Wars universe and are viable adventures that the heroes could have had before The Empire Strikes Back.
Still though, they are not stellar work by any means, merely solid. In retrospect, due to the authors not knowing where George Lucas was going, some of the things you see cause some cognitive dissonance. No fault of the authors, but it is still jarring to see things you know are untrue.
Decent artwork, and stories in a rather large collection make this a worthwhile collection if you'd like to read a sort of slightly altered universe of what the Star Wars characters did between the movies.
Green Rabbits and Cyborg Bounty Hunters..........2002-07-22
I've just ordered the reprint trade paperback reprints of these Marvel books. I remember reading and re-reading all of these "beyond the movie" adventures when I was a kid. It was just such an incredible charge to see what Luke, Han, and company were doing between the movies. Water worlds, gambling satellites, Darth Vader learning the name of the Death Star's destroyer(a nice plot device), the blocky artwork and awkward poses of Carmine Infantino artwork, wondering WHY these adventurers NEVER changed their clothes as they NEVER seemed to make their way back to Yavin Base after their Flash Gordon-esque side-adventures... Oh, and we can't forget that Obi-Wan Jedi story with the droid 68RKO (which were the call letters of a radio station if I'm not mistaken)...They really DID capture the imagination. Hopefully, Dark Horse will get around to publishing a VOLUME 3 because therein lie the BEST Marvel STAR WARS tales. But these first two will take you to a Long Time Ago in a Decade Not Far Away Enough--The Seventies. You'll see the pop-cultural impact of the first wave of STAR WARS mania, in many ways as endearingly cheesy as that Thanksgiving Holiday special. If you remember these, you will LOVE them all over again...if you don't, then prepare to be mightily entertained, whether you like comics, STAR WARS, or pop-culture in general. These books definitely belong on your shelf...
Book Description
Fascinating and engaging, STARS AND GALAXIES guides you to answer these fundamental questions: "What are we?" and "How do we know?" In discussing the interplay between evidence and hypothesis, this textbook provides a conceptual framework for understanding the logic of science. Crafting a story about astronomy, Seeds shows you how to ask questions to gradually puzzle out the beautiful secrets of the physical world.
Book Description
Galaxies are perhaps the most popular of all visual targets that are sought after by visual observers. At present the only way to get up-to-date information, is to query various (often highly technical) speciality books or digging deeply into the Internet. This can be a time consuming and often frustrating task, as the data aren’t often compatible. This book satisfies the need for a modern, comprehensive review in combining the three major aspects: the physical background on the nature and data of galaxies, the relevant instrumentation and viewing techniques, and finally the targets and their individual appearance in telescopes of various apertures. To illustrate the latter, a comprehensive sample of galaxies, including quasars, groups and clusters of galaxies is presented. This combination of theoretical knowledge and practical information guarantees successful observing sessions. The book could become a standard source on galaxy observing for all kinds of amateur observers, from the beginner to the experienced.
Customer Reviews:
A very good book.......2007-10-04
It is excellent writting, comprehensive, analytical and all subjects well presented and in the appropriate order.
most up-to-date, clearly structured reference book on galaxy observing.......2007-08-13
Wolfgang Steinicke was the leading author of the german "Praxishandbuch Deep Sky"(Kosmos 2004), which I like very much. So I started reading his new book on Galaxies with high expectations...and I was not disappointed :
I believe this is the most up-to-date, clearly structured reference book on galaxy observing - satisfying a very broad range of interests.
In three major sections, the authors not only address the needs of the most ambitious observers, but frequently add encouraging hints for beginners as well.
I recommend it A) as a reading book to gain a broader knowledge
and B) as an excellent planning guide when you want to observe MUCH MORE than the most commonly known galaxies.
SECTION I (70 pages) provides a basic understanding of the different types of galaxies and clusters, plus all those data that are important for visually observing them.
Chapter 1 explains different galaxy classification schemes, special cases and pecularities - then chapter 2 introduces pairs, groups and clusters of galaxies and shows their place within the hierarchy of the universe.
Chapter 3 presents a well structured overview for many different types of galaxy catalogs, containing galaxy data and nomenclatures. Advantages/disadvantages of these catalogs are discussed and their data quality is critically judged.
I strongly recommend to study this chapter 3 on catalogs first, because the same presentation structure is followed in the later SECTION III on observing programs.
SECTION II (33 pages) covers the Technical Aspects on observing galaxies.
Key technical instrumentation aspects are only summarized briefly (chap.4), but the Theory of Visual Observation (chap.5), together with practical recommendations on observing, star hopping and observing logs (chap.6) demonstrate the authors very broad experience in finding, identifying faint galaxies and documenting them.
SECTION III (110 pages) on "What to Observe? - The Objects" contains the largest, most valuable part of the book.
An instructive combination of "photo/textual" descriptions presents a large number of objects in the most "objective" way :
Not counting individual galaxies inside groups or clusters (though mentioned in the tables), a total of 500 objects are listed in data tables - following that same structure introduced in SECTION I. Each data table is immediately followed by a separate table with textual descriptions. Around 600 such descriptions are given, based on the visual appearance of each object with different instruments: 1. binocular (if possible),
2. medium aperture telescope(6-10"), 3. large telescope(13-20", sometimes larger).
All these observation descriptions in chapters 7 to 10 stem from renowned observers; e.g. Steve Gottlieb, Steve Coe, beside the authors.
Chapter 7 suggests a variety of Observing Programs, based on
a) M-, NGC/IC- or UGC- CATALOGS
b) Sky Areas and constellations
Chapter 8 suggests selection criteria which are dependent on the characteristics of the individual galaxy; i.e. by sorting them by their distance or by their appearance.
Chapter 9 concentrates on Groups and Clusters; i.e. by listing a) pairs and trios, b) small groups and chains, then c) clusters.
Chapter 10 finally suggests interesting targets "off the beaten path" or in the category of "ultimate challenge".
My reason for mentioning all these details is to demonstrate that this book is quite well organized - especially for all those readers with a minimal amount of patience and learning will.
There is only one unfortunate omission : Springer printed the 1.edition of this unique reference book without a page index !!!
However, after I emailed the author, he swiftly produced an INDEX OF ALL OBJECTS (xls), which can easily be downloaded
from the (Homepage Wolfgang Steinicke).
A Wealth of Information, Poorly Organized.......2007-04-17
This book is filled with a lot of really interesting information on galaxies. However, it is extremely disorganized. My copy of this book is now full of bookmarks to help me find information later. Why? This book has no index. Let me repeat that--this book has NO INDEX. This is an unforgivable sin for any reference book! Furthermore, the subtitle is "and how to observe them." There is not a clue about how to observe galaxies. Instead, the pictures of galaxies are taken through large professional telescopes that for the most part are not even identified. There are observer's descriptions for some galaxies, but most of these are through 20" and larger telescopes. Only a few descriptions are for telescope sizes you might be likely to own.
On the plus side, there are a number of pointers to more information sources, but often these are given in large, undifferentiated lists, instead of the authors making specific recommendations.
Some of the descriptions of galactic structure and evolution are extremely sparse. You won't find a clear definition of Seyfert galaxies, for example.
If you're looking for a definitive work on galaxies, this isn't it. But if you want to learn some interesting facts, you might find this book a fun read. You'll probably come away with some observing ideas as well, but stock up on bookmarks!
Book Description
The latest volume of Star Wars: A Long Time Ago... features more classic stories not seen for more than twenty years! Originally printed by Marvel Comics (issues 82 to 95), these stories take place after Return of the Jedi, as the heroes establish a base of leadership for their newly freed galaxy. Also: a stranded Leia fights for her life with a native of her destroyed home world...an Imperial trooper! Lando goes to the aid of an old flame and gets caught in a planet's political struggles. Han and Chewie set out on a treasure hunt, but manage to twart an Imperial plot. And much more! Introduction by Dark Horse Star Wars writer and editor Randy Stradley.
Customer Reviews:
Star Wars at its Finest!.......2003-06-20
Terrific grouping of stories, both epic and self-contained, during the period immediately following Return of the Jedi (and Truce at Bakura) which contains some of the best and most exciting Star Wars tales to date.
With Jo Duffy firmly at the helm as writer, the Marvel Star Wars series really hit its stride with these issues. Duffy has an instinctive feel for the Star Wars Universe and especially for its characters whom she handles with expert grace. She also adds a touch of genuine humor, an element present in the films, but oftentimes lacking in Star Wars fiction. Unlike criticisms of The Phantom Menace, however, the humor never collides with the dramatic tension, and in this the author excels, producing some of the more somber and dark tales of the series. In these issues, moreover, there is an onslaught of movement, both the fast action-paced variety and the more internal dramatic ones.
With the dissipation of the Empire, an alien force moves in (precursors to the later Yuuzahn Vong) that is both ruthless and terrifying. The Nagai are the proud and sometimes vicious warriors of a system that itself has suffered the ill-effects of centuries-long war. Drawn in malevolent form by the likes of experts Tom Palmer (one of my all-time favorite SW artists) and then newcomer Cynthia Martin (who's style predates the US invasion of Japanese art), the Nagai are never one-dimensional villains, and along with fan-favorite, Lumiya (a former Rebel plant trained in the Dark Side by Vader himself), dominate these pages with a presence that perfectly fills in the gap left by the Empire.
Also featured here is Randy Stradley's first contribution (issue 86: Last Gift of Alderaan) which is a prequel to his later Crimson Empire series for Dark Horse. This is a moving tale that never fails to elicit resonance. Issue 89 (I'll See You in the Throne Room) by Ann Nocenti is likewise a haunting and evokative tale of betrayal, greed and madness that provides a forgleam of Luke's eventual descent to the Dark Side six years later in Dark Empire. Some times the Bad Guys win... Also, here is the first entry by everyone's favorite Star Wars artist, Jan Duursema in a story called "The Dream", a fantastic conclusion to The Apprentice (in Annual 3) which demonstrates the sad consequences of the abuse of power, and in which we are given a glimpse of the second Dark Lord of the Sith to follow in the wake of Vader's demise (the first being Lumiya) as well as a surprising and touching appearance by Yoda! Great stuff here! The above is just a sampling of the many incredible stories you'll find. There's also a fantastic Lando tale (with his famous and hysterical "Drebble" disguise!), Ewoks at war, Hoojibs, Han, Leia, Chewie on his homeworld of Kashyyyk and much, much more!
Dark Horse has again done a magnificent job reprinting these long out-of-print and hard-to-find issues, and they've never looked and felt so good! No true fan of Star Wars should be without this book and it's accompanying volumes on their shelf. A masterpiece of writing, art and packaging!
Customer Reviews:
More hopeful than the Greeks: Native American star myths.......2005-07-08
Dorcas Miller's book is a gateway into our North American sky. I have already given my first copy to a scout leader. Her organization is superb: sky-watchers can pick a star or constellation and use the reference guide to access all its stories; ethnographers can follow the chapter organization by region and tribe. I will annotate her lists as I add other sources and tales.
Miller starts with the conventional Greek constellations that still map our sky for professional astronomers, providing myth summaries and seasonal sky maps. Her stick figures of these constellations are a delight and I copy their details onto the daily sky charts from the internet.
Both the Greeks and our First Peoples filled their skies with peoples and animals. Only a few identities, such as bear and dog, straddle both hemispheres. Greek heroes and heroines may be banished forever to the sky by the action of the gods as punishment, or placed by a friendly god to protect them from the angered one. Animals and humans are often antagonists. I can't think of a creation myth. The dead didn't go there.
Our First Peoples connection with the sky seems ongoing and personal- get lost and you may wander into it. Die and you may walk up the Milky Way, past guides and obstacles. Suffer and you may find an opening to the sky or a rescuer who will take you into it; you may be homesick, come and go, but finally choose the sky. If you navigate by the stars, why not? It may be a refuge. The myths feel contemporary, the characters often ordinary, and creation feels recent. The animals may be small and hungry, brave or lazy.
Miller provides the myth texts as she finds them, supplementing with discussion and drawings- maps of their known or probable stars and historic diagrams such as rock art that may be relevant. The bibliography is broad. This book will be a good anchor for collecting other North American books coming into print or reprint. `
a well-rounded presentation of North American star lore.......2005-02-18
Curious about the stories that different Native American peoples told about the stars? Dorcas Miller's "Stars of the First People" will go a long way towards satisfying your curiosity. Focusing on the peoples of North America, she has pulled together a robust collection of tales and star lore and grouped them by region. Plentiful sketches, star maps, and charts accompany the text to provide a visual reinforcement of the material contained in the stories.
In addition to the star lore, Dorcas has also included a decent amount of background information on the individual tribes to help the reader better understand the context of the star stories. In the back of the book you'll find an extensive set of notes and bibliographic references for those interested in further reading on this subject.
Don Childrey, author of "STAR TRAILS - Navajo"
Well-written book with information hard to find elsewhere.......2000-05-14
This is one of the most complete set of Native American star legends that I have seen. The author first reviews the standard Greek and Roman myths that have given us our constellation names. For each region of North America, he devotes an entire chapter to star legends from indigenous people that live in that region. At the end of each chapter he lists standard constellations and groups and the Native American legends behind each, and at the end of the book he provides an overall listing. Some interesting similarities come out - for example, the Big Dipper is a bear in standard Greek and Roman and in many Native American myths, and Sirius is a dog or wolf star in standard and in Native American myths. The stories are well written and can be used anywhere where storytelling is called for - for example, to groups of children. For a good summary of Native American myths, look to this volume. I just wish there was a similar compendium of ALL the world's indigenous star myths.
Book Description
Understanding how we pinpoint the past is crucial to putting the present in perspective and planning for the future. Now, for the first time, journalist and geologist Chris Turney explains to the non-specialist exactly how archaeologists, paleontologists, and geologists tell the time. Each chapter explores one famous event or object from the past, walking readers step by step through the detective work used to determine when things happened. From the Ice Age to the pyramids, from human evolution to the Shroud of Turin, Turney reveals how written records, carbon, pollen, constellations, DNA sequencing, and more all play a part in solving the mystery of the true age of objects and events.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent story "connecting the dots" of time.......2007-01-09
Turney's book is a great easily read science book explaining how we know when historic and prehistoric events occurred. Each chapter stands alone on its own merits, describing how we know one particular fact, or how one particular measurement system works...but tie together to show how a multitude of different measures can describe events as recent as the 1300s and as distant as dinosaur extinctions 65 million years ago.
This book is great reading for the layman interested in how science works and how scientists can be confident about the chronology and timing of events deep in our past.
The only criticism is that it left me wanting more...I would have devoured a book twice as long!
An essential pick for college-level collections strong in scientific inquiry........2006-11-07
How does dating affect authenticity in identifying relics and linking historical facts? Eleven chapters each focus on a famous dating controversy, examining the procedures of dating, common methods used to date everything from tree rings to astronomical bodies, and common problems which involve dating. Discrepancies in evidence, forgeries, and misinterpretations are all covered in BONES, ROCKS AND STARS: THE SCIENCE OF WHEN THINGS HAPPENED, an essential pick for college-level collections strong in scientific inquiry.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
What Do We Know, and When Did We Know It?.......2006-10-29
"Bones, Rocks and Stars" is an engaging and wide-ranging romp through "the science of when things happened." Each chapter covers a single topic, such as how the calendar evolved, when King Arthur would have lived (if he existed), when the Santorini volcano erupted in the Mediterranean, when the Shroud of Turin was forged (pulling no punches there), when (and why) the earth experiences ice ages, and when (exactly) the dinosaurs were wiped out by an asteroid impact. Turney's style is approachable, so even carbon 14 dating, the precession of the equinoxes, Milankovitch cycles and other challenging topics are clearly explained.
If you enjoy enlightening and surprising books like Malcolm Gladwell's "Tipping Point" and "Blink," Cordelia Fines' "A Mind of Its Own" and Michael Leavitt's "Freakonomics," you may find this little book to be an eye opening and entertaining look at how scientists have figured out when things happened.
Book Description
With a friendly, down-home style, this guide encourages readers to whittle away the hours. Great for beginners looking for an easy way to get started and more advanced carvers looking for a relaxing way to spend their time, this instructional manual provides 20 projects, including knives, forks, birds, animals, trees, and flowers. Chapters detail the proper whittling tools and materials, including what woods are best to carve, and how to start projects by selecting and safely sharpening the best knife for each project.
Customer Reviews:
Good beginners guide.......2007-09-30
I went to a local wood hobby shop and looked at several carving/whittling books. This one looked good so I bought it on ebay and saved some $s.
I'm a total novice, so this book was perfect. Full of photographs that explain every step. No previous experience necessary. Tip: I've managed to cut myself a few times so I'm wearing gloves until my technique improves. A very relaxing pastime. Highly recommended. If you are wondering which beginners book to buy then buy this.
Good book.......2007-05-31
If you are new to whittling (like me) this was a good book to get started on. Lots of things that you can make right away.
The Little Book of Whittling.......2007-01-04
GREAT book for beginning/intermediate whittler! Got this for my 8-year-old grandson for Christmas along with Smoky Mountain Whittler (knife), and he was thrilled! HIGHLY RECOMMEND!
Thanks!
Didn't blow my mind.......2007-01-03
Although I can't say the book is bad, it was not what I was expecting.
I was expecting a manual that would allow me to pick up my pocket knife and start working on my first piece :-)
Having said that, the book does give a nice general overview of the subject of whittling.
great for beginners.......2006-08-01
This book has very detailed instructions accompanied by step-by-step photographs. It teaches you how to carve several different things (spoons, forks, knives, stick figures, flowers, and walking sticks among them) from twigs.
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