Book Description
The search for clean, renewable energy sources has yielded enormous growth and new developments in these technologies in a few short years, driving down costs and encouraging utilities in many nations, both developed and developing, to add and expand wind and solar power capacity. The first, best-selling edition of Wind and Solar Power Systems provided the most complete and modern treatment of renewable energy. This second edition continues the tradition by offering updated and expanded coverage of this growing field. The book begins with individual sections devoted to wind power and solar photovoltaic technologies, their engineering fundamentals, conversion characteristics, operational considerations to maximize output, and emerging trends. The discussion of wind power includes the theory of induction machine performance and operation as well as generator speed control, while the solar PV section includes array design, environmental variables, and sun-tracking methods. This edition includes two chapters devoted to new and specialized technologies. The third section explores large-scale energy storage technologies, overall electrical system performance, and total plant economy while the final section explores ancillary power systems derived from the sun. Focusing on the complete system rather than on a single component, Wind and Solar Power Systems: Design, Analysis, and Operation, Second Edition offers the most comprehensive reference to all aspects of modern renewable energy systems.
Customer Reviews:
Great book!.......2001-02-01
This book is a lucid, up-to-date and comprehensive reference for theory and practical matters surrounding our two most viable alternate energy sources. Be careful though because the first edition has a few typographical errors, one or two in its derivations.
An excellent, comprehensive text.......2000-10-26
Very readable, and accessible, even to a non-engineer.
Great reference book...........2000-09-14
This is a good reference book on renewable energy sources. It is well organized and easy to follow, even for non-electrical engineers. As an environmental engineer, I have found it an excellent reference.
Book Description
During her first visit to the beautiful island of Pohnpei in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, anthropologist Martha Ward discovered people who grew quarter-ton yams in secret and ritually shared a powerful drink called kava. She managed a medical research project, ate dog, became pregnant, and responded to spells placed on her. Thirty years later she returned to Pohnpei to learn what had happened there since her first visit. Were islanders still relaxed and casual about sex? Were they still obsessed with titles and social rank? Was the island still lush and beautiful? Had the inhabitants remained healthy? This second edition of Ward's best-selling account is a rare, longitudinal study that tracks people, processes, and a place through decades of change. It is also an intimate record of doing fieldwork that immerses readers in the sights, smells, tastes, sounds, and the sensory richness of Pohnpei. Ward addresses the ageless ethnographic questions about family life, politics, religion, traditional medicine, magic, and death together with contemporary concerns about postcolonial survival, the discontinuities of culture, and adaptation to the demands of a global age. Her insightful discoveries illuminate the evolution of a culture possibly distant from yet important to people living in other parts of the world.
Customer Reviews:
Nest in the Wind - worth reading.......2005-10-14
Novel type account of femal antho, well written, easy read.
Personal touch.......2004-08-28
This book is an ethnography of the people of Pohnpei. The author accompanied her husband to Pohnpei during the 1970s and they lived there together for several years. In the 1940s, army doctors had noted that the people of Pohnpei all had quite low blood pressure. Ward and her husband were the anthropologist components of a team that was trying to determine whether the initial blood pressure observations were accurate, and if so, whether societal influences seemed to be playing a role. Although the blood pressure study was the impetus for going to Pohnpei, and provides much of the framework for Ward's time on Pohnpei, this book isn't about that project. Instead, the book describes how Ward gradually integrated herself into the culture to the greatest extent that she could during her limited stay.
As a trained anthropologist, Ward was primed to observe the culture on Pohnpei. She notes that the society was matriarchal and that ceremonial titles were highly important. Personal names were impermanent, and many people, including study subjects, changed their names frequently. She struggles to learn the language, noting that it makes use of dual number in addition to singular and plural, and makes a distinction in personal pronouns between inclusive and exclusive "we". She discusses diet, gender roles, politics, education, courting behavior, and funeral rites. All of this is done, however, informally, almost in the manner of a travelogue. Indeed, many of the chapters close with letters that she wrote home to family or friends, many with humorous touches as she struggles with culture shock. As the time on the island passes, Ward relates to us the challenges that she faced in finding housing, a local research assistant, and conducting research related to the blood pressure project. She describes feasts that she attended, and feasts that she gave, and how a ceremonial title came to be bestowed on her. She also tells us of her decision to have child, and how her pregnancy was greeted by the local Pohnpeians.
One initial theory about why the Pohnpeians had low blood pressure was that this was a tropical paradise, where everyone had low-stress lives. Ward noted that this was, of course, a baseless assumption, since people on Pohnpei certainly did have problems and stress. Unfortunately, the results of the blood pressure project were never published in detail. However, in the epilogue, Ward notes that the study found some people with high blood pressure, especially among the sedentary and obese. The book closes with an annotated list of additional readings. It does not have an index. It has maps and a few black and white sketches, but no photographs.
The book is quite accessible to general readers, while containing the kinds of information that anthropologists would expect to find in an ethnography. In addition to observations on the local culture of Pohnpei, Ward also tells us a little of the culture of North American researchers and Peace Corps volunteers working on the island. In this book, we can find a window into Pohnpei (albeit the Pohnpei of thirty years ago) that will be interesting to travelers and anthropologists alike.
Adventures on a Tropical Island.......2001-12-06
This book is the best example of pre-modern life on Pohnpei anywhere. Recent visits to websites and stuff have shown me that much of the culture talked about in this book has already disappeared or soon will. If you are taking anthropology, or just interested in the culture of the island, this book will satisfy you. Well written and informative.
A great read that captures the essence of Pohnpei!.......1999-06-17
I lived on Pohnpei for a year in the early '90's. I picked up this book to see how well the author described the island and the customs. I was amazed and continually delighted with how she detailed the rituals, feasts and problems of Pohnpei. She absolutely captures the feelings that are associated with living on Pohnpei, and does a great job incorporating those into the book. I found myself wanting to go back to the island, and wishing that I had taken the time to learn more details of this fascinating place. This easy-to-read book is great for people that are interested in anthropolgy, other cultures, Pohnpei or even Micronesia in general.
Product Description
Be your own power company and let Mother Nature provide the energy! By investing in affordable, new technologies, you can join the thousands of homeowners who get free electricity from the sun, wind and water. In this updated 2nd edition of Power With Nature, you'll learn how easy it is to use renewable energy to become self-sufficient and live well anywhere! - Off-Grid Solar PV, Wind & Micro-Hydro Systems
- Homeowner Profiles (Personal Power Companies)
- Utility Grid-Tie Options
- Sizing Your Renewable Energy System
- Charge Controllers, Inverters, Batteries
- Putting It All Together Safely
- Heating of House and Water
- Pumping Water
- Worksheets, Maps, Resources, Glossary, Index and much more!
Customer Reviews:
an excellent primer.......2007-01-09
If you are confused by the components, their arrangement and connections, this is the book for you. The story in the beginning is a bit silly, but it does serve it's purpose - to anchor concepts in your memory. It is worth enduring. You will get a decent background in components and terminology from this book, very readable, and an excellent introduction to RE.
Pumps to appliances: alternate options.......2006-04-20
Plenty of energy guides for homeowners advocate getting off the grid; but few do such a good job of explaining just how to go about it as does POWER WITH NATURE: ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SOLUTIONS FOR HOMEOWNERS - now in its updated second edition. From off-grid solar, wind and hydro systems to grid tie in options, systems which can be customized, and appliances which lend to running on solar, chapters offer the latest facts plus maps, resources, worksheets and more. The chapter on putting different systems together is particularly notable for its focus on protecting the systems and people from energy spill problems and damage, while that on pumping rainwater, water for fire protection, and using cisterns offers methods other books usually gloss over: essential for rural homeowners. An outstanding, highly recommended guide.
Should be mandatory reading for all environmentally conscious folk.......2005-09-07
First, I want to give this book an extra star - I award it 6 out of 5 stars, it's that good.
The book itself gets off to an unusual beginning. The fable style takes you by surprise at first then, as you persevere everything clicks into place. That fable provides background for the rest of the book which is exactly what the author intended. To have a book that, by necessity provides technical information, yet lets you read it without even considering a lack of a science degree is a critical success factor.
This book is immensely useful and readable... and enjoyable. Whoever says conservation and science are stuffy subjects needs to have this book to reverse their view.
My wife, Mary, and I are going to retire to a home with solar and wind energy. We know that will be daunting task. Rex Ewing's book provides enough to remove the fear and trepidation of our plan. Thanks to you Rex and your wife LaVonne.
We Did What He Said, and it Worked.......2004-09-05
Rex Ewing's Power with Nature was the only book we needed to tell us how to power our vacation home in Costa Rica. Our home is about ten miles from the nearest electrical lines and we had decided to do solar electric. I prepared myself mentally for plowing through a bunch of technical details and began reading. I was pleasantly surprised. In addition to telling you all the nitty gritty about power, this book is witty and fun to read, quite user friendly. After reading Ewing's explanation of the different options for off-the-grid power, we decided on a roof-top solar array with a bank of batteries in the basement. Here in Costa Rica there is plenty of sun in the dry season. But in the rainy season we get lots of rain and the streams are all full. That's a problem because the cloudy conditions mean less solar energy. So we decided to supplement the solar with a water-driven Jack Rabbit turbine--something we didn't know existed before reading this book--in the stream that runs behind our house. I'm a complete dunce about electricity and my husband is just as bad, but Ewing's book tells it all in a way that even we could understand. We did exactly what he said and, guess what? Everything worked, just like it did for Rex and LaVonne. If you want to learn about alternatives to traditional forms of power, or do like we did and actually build it yourself, I highly recommend Power with Nature.
What a great book!.......2004-07-29
This book really clarifies the rather confusing world of components, electrons and energy. Power with Nature explains what all of the renewable energy components are, why you might need them, and then how to plug them together if you choose a renewable energy source. For example, in one of the many detailed chapters, Ewing explains the difference between inexpensive, modified sinewave inverters and the more expensive sinewaver inverters. The explanations are easy to understand and the book is enjoyable. (I laughed as I read the fable; it was such a nice change from the rather dry technical books of the past.) The appendix is also very helpful with all of the worksheets and tables.
Average customer rating:
- Touching, Poignant story of unexpected love...
- Could have been awesome...but it wasn't.
- Ok read...
- Loss and New Beginnings
- Warm, tender and uplifting.
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Catching a Second Wind
Sean Michael
Manufacturer: Torquere Press
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ASIN: 1934166928 |
Book Description
When Dakota lost Mike he thought he was done for when it came to love. Heck, after losing a lifetime partner, he figures it's even affecting his ability to do his job as a veterinarian. He's having nightmares and headaches and panic attacks. Which is why he lets his friends convince him to see a psychologist. Ben is understanding, sympathetic, and a good listener. He's also the most attractive thing Dakota has seen in a long time. But Dakota ignores that, and so does Ben, because they have a strictly professional relationship. Before they know it, Dakota and Ben are moving from being a doctor and a patient to being something a lot more interesting. That presents a whole new set of problems. Dakota finds it hard to forget, and Ben finds it hard not to analyze too much. The two of them have to work hard to find common ground and to find peace of mind. Can these two put aside the past and build a new life together, one that is uniquely theirs? Author Lorne Rodman says, "Sean has a winner here. All the angst, love and heat I could want. You really care about Ben and Dakota. Be sure to catch this one!"
Download Description
When Dakota lost Mike he thought he was done for when it came to love. Heck, after losing a lifetime partner, he figures it's even affecting his ability to do his job as a veterinarian. Which is why he lets his friends convince him to see a psychologist.
Ben is understanding, sympathetic, and a good listener. He's also the most attractive thing Dakota has seen in a long time. Before they know it, Dakota and Ben are moving from being in a doctor patient relationship to something a lot more interesting, and that presents a whole new set of problems.
Can these two put aside the past and build a new life together, one that is uniquely theirs?
Customer Reviews:
Touching, Poignant story of unexpected love..........2007-10-06
You never know what kind of a story Sean Michael will give us - raunchy, romantic, bdsm, paranormal. Sean gave us a tender story of an unexpected love that develops between a man who has lost his partner of 16years and the therapist who is trying to help him overcome his latent grief. Sean shows the reader how the grief that Dakota is suffering manifests itself in his inability to do his job as a vet. Unfortunately, Ben, the therapist is developing feelings for Dakota while at the same time forcing him to confront his past with his late partner. The author takes the reader along on a painful journey of discovery for Dakota and the difficult angst-ridden Ben who must try to maintain his professionalism. Crossing the line from doctor-patient to friend and lover is not easy.Touching, poignant, filled with heartbreaking realism. Loved it!
Could have been awesome...but it wasn't........2007-05-24
I have read several books by this author, and I cannot help but see a very strong similarity amongst characters. Dakota and his deceased lover Mike are very much like the main characters in the Jarhead series. The young psychologist, Ben seems underdeveloped and just too saccharine. I could never get a feel for him. His only "flaws" seems to be that he is a little young for Dakota and sometimes he over analyzes.
The story sort of dragged on, as if there was no point to it. I kept waiting for something to happen. By the time I got half way through it, I began to realize nothing major WAS going to happen in this book. Chronicling the development of a relationship between these two men could have been an awesome story, but it just did not deliver.
Another thing I found quite annoying with this story is that the dialogue was elementary. Am I supposed to believe that two doctors would speak in such simplistic terms? I swear the word "good" appeared on EVERY page. "Oh, good!"..."That feels good."... "You feel good." Believe me; you will begin counting the number of times that word shows up while reading.
To be completely honest, I found this book to be boring. Even the sex was redundant, and Sean Michael can write some pretty steamy sex scenes. This one just seems to have fallen flat. I would recommend to readers to skip this title and opt for another of this author's works.
Ok read..........2007-05-22
This was a good book. I wont deny it, however towards the end half of the book, it kinda falls into a 'sex void', where the characters are having sex in the pages so often it takes away from the initial storyline. also, it is very repetitive. 3 out of 5
Loss and New Beginnings.......2007-05-21
A man who's grieving the loss of his partner finds love in another lonely man in this steaming, hot romance.
Warm, tender and uplifting........2007-04-09
Do you remember your 1st book by your favorite writers ? Well, "Catching a Second Wind" is my first taste of Sean's talents and I have enjoyed every one of his writings eversince. Maybe some of his stories are bogged down by too much sex (however you have to admit this guy is very good in this) but Sean never fails to amaze me with his wonderfully appealing characters loving under such creative circumstances.
"Catching a Second Wind" is a beautiful, emotional and tender story of one man helping another to overcome the lost of his lover.
Dakota is a vet who lost his partner of 16 years. Since then this deeply wounded man could not put an animal "down" without breaking down. Ben is a psychologist who helps him overcome his pain and fears, the scenes here touching and tender. These 2 lonely men finding solace in each other and loving each other is some heartwarming and passionate story telling by Sean. And of course the sex is hot. I am glad to have this finally in print.
Average customer rating:
- Enlightening and Infuriating at the Same Time
- Definitive book on Miles
- fine book, but . . .
- Bravo Chambers!
- The definitve biography of Miles Davis written thus far
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Milestones: The Music and Times of Miles Davis
J. K. Chambers
Manufacturer: Da Capo Press
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So What: The Life of Miles Davis
ASIN: 0306808498 |
Customer Reviews:
Enlightening and Infuriating at the Same Time.......2007-03-12
Yes, this is THE source for information on Miles Davis' career. It should get five stars but there is a major sticking point for me. The book pretty much sticks to the musical aspects of Miles' life and it is chock-full of great information about line-ups, tours, recording dates.
I love all of Miles' work from his days with Parker until the day he died. It ALL has its place. Given that, I have a very serious problem with this book. Chambers is incredibly biased against Miles work from In a Silent Way onwards. He delivers many judgments about some recorded performances a "failures". He has very few positive things to say about this period. His comments about Big Fun and On the Corner (now considered far ahead of its time and a masterpiece) are inexcusable. He claims any listener to the music on Big Fun will find it frustratingly boring. Speak for yourself Chambers, Big Fun was the very record that got me into Miles Davis. If it's so lousy, why is it still in print in both a 24 bit remaster AND SACD? Chambers describes "He Loved Him Madly" from "Get Up With It" as "monochratic" and asserts it is incapable of sustaining the listener's interest. What? Again, if it's so boring, why is "Get Up With It" still in print and beautifully remastered 27 years after its initial release? SOMEbody is buying this stuff. We know who we are ;-)
I believe most folks don't read a book like this because they want a critique, they want information and perhaps insights from the folks who were there, playing the music, producing the music, etc. The information is here in this book, but the reader has to put up with Chamber's shallow opinions about Miles' later work. His comments about the Cellar Door gig with McLaughlin are ridiculous - especially given we can now actually hear much of those performances on the Cellar Door Sessions and that this was an incredibly good band with or without McLaughlin.
Chambers also prefaced this new edition with a long diatribe about Miles' last decade, calling him "Freaky Deaky" and making lots of plagerism complaints, i.e. Miles ripped off many of Chambers accounts and stories to create his autobiography. That may be a very valid point but I didn't buy this book to read about that sort of thing. So what, Chambers is upset that an old man who always claimed to have a poor memory used his book to recall some of the instances of his own life? Pathetic. Chambers forgets that he's made a handsome profit off of the life of Miles Dewey Davis. If Chambers felt he just HAD to include it, then it should have appeared as an epilogue not as a prologue full of sour grapes.
If you want to learn a lot about Miles, this is definitely THE book to purchase, but ya sure have to endure a lot of the author's sour grapes and subjective, snotty criticism to get the goods.
Definitive book on Miles.......2005-12-26
The best book on Miles Davis and one of the best jazz books ever written. Originally published in two volumes, the first half covers Miles from his birth up to 1960, the second half since 1960. The book is a bio-discography and centers around Miles's recording sessions. Full session details are given along with excellent commentary by Chambers.
Chambers knows what he's talking about when it comes to the music (a lot of jazz biographers are shaky when dealing with the actual music involved). Additional biographical detail is related as the book proceeds chronologically - club dates, personnel changes, business deals, troubles. It's a fascinating, detailed, and authoritative account of the life and career of Miles Davis. Definitive and a must-have book for anyone at all interested in Davis or modern jazz in general.
fine book, but . . ........2004-03-15
A fine book.
But Chambers is also slightly upset, I think, that Quincy Troupe got to work with Miles on his autobiography and not he -- and what Chambers' book is missing is exactly the kind of personal material (and voice) you find in Miles' autiobiograpy ("Miles").
The best thing about this book is the discussion of the wider context of Miles' music and performance ("the times"), but without Miles own voice it degenerates through the end of Part Two into a kind of annotated discography (mind you -- that's not all bad -- it is accurate and gave me a few ideas for out of the way purchases).
So, I recommend reading both this book and "Miles", for a complete picture.
Bravo Chambers!.......2003-02-04
This is probably the best book about the life of Miles Davis I have found. I have read his autobiography, the biography by Carr, and So What along with a couple of other Miles books. This one simply gives the best detail and most interesting about the artists life. If you want to read a book about Miles Davis start with this one. It is quite lenghty but there weren't many dull moments in Davis's life.
The definitve biography of Miles Davis written thus far.......2001-01-09
Jack Chambers has done a very hard task and that is to present the life of the legendary Miles Davis to readers in a very interesting, yet complex style which was reflective of the way Miles Davis led his life and music.
Miles Davis was the premiere jazz musician of his time along with John Coltrane, Charlie "Bird" Parker, Herbie Hancock, etc, yet while you can love Davis's music, to know the man was very hard to do, since Miles Davis was a standoffish and sullen individual. Chambers describes Davis's behavior as being sullen and hard to know because Davis's was a very shy man. I am sure that Davis lived a tough life because of injustice, yet it is sad that he didn't trust his fans and those who cared for him. Davis certainly lived the life of a "star", he over-indulged in sex, was an abuser of drugs, and had split personalities later on in life, yet his musical vision was almost always focused and clear, whether it be in the pinnacle of his talent (1950-1962), or his creating fusion (1967-1973), or the later part of his life.
Chambers does an excellent job of detailing the relationship Miles had with his fellow musicians such as the love-hate relationship with Theolonius Monk, the admiration and jealousy between Coltrane and Miles, as well as Miles being a mentor to such jazz greats as Herbie Hancock, John McGlaughlin, Chick Corea, etc.
I am a tremendous fan of Miles Davis jazz visions, I love his music and his musical style, yet after reading this book I feel sadness because I don't know if I pity Davis or just not liking him altogether, or admiring him no matter what, his final years were spent in paranoia, suspicion and feeding his ego, that is sad because if he would of just relaxed and enjoy his fans admiration I believe he might have lived longer. Anyways, this is an outstanding book and is highly recommended to all jazz lovers and fans of the immortal Miles Davis.
Customer Reviews:
Ian Myles Slater on An Extraordinary Book.......2003-09-23
This is a first-hand account of the origin and development of suicide tactics by the Japanese during the Second World War. It is told by naval aviators, part of the group which proposed using themselves and their aircrcraft as anti-ship weapons, instead of continuing increasingly futile efforts to use bombs and torpedoes. It was originally published in English by the Naval Institute Press in 1958, and should be credited in part to Roger Pineau (as in the Amazon listings for some editions). It was quickly reprinted in paperback by Bantam Books (1960), and reprinted several times in that format (Amazon lists a 1985 reissue, clearly crediting Pineau). It has been in and out of print thereafter.
It is not only a source-document for military history, containing the recollections of surviving participants in the "Divine Wind" campaign, but has material of profound psychological and even philosophical interest. The (late) Princeton philosopher Walter Kaufmann called particular attention to the collection of letters from young pilots who had volunteered for the mission of dying in the hope of striking the enemy. This final chapter (followed by statistical appendices on sorties) is, to my (inexpert) knowledge, the largest single group of such documents available in English. There are also some fascinating reflections from volunteers who survived the war, and faced a difficult adjustment not only to defeat and peace, but to life.
There are now available more detailed accounts of the main Kamikaze effort. (Which was, by the way more properly called, in formal Sino-Japanese, "Shimpu" -- the term familiar to Westerners apparently was worked up by code-breakers using dictionaries, and they missed the actual written and spoken forms). Here we have an outline, from the point when Admiral Ohnishi expressed to some senior pilots his admiration of those who had "body-rammed" enemy bombers with their fighter planes, and they responded by looking for even more profitable targets, to Ohnishi's own suicide. (A traditional formal one, in response to Japan's surrender. Some other senior promoters of the tactic were blocked from getting airborne on their own "final missions," and at least one led a suicide sortie that apparently ran out fuel.)
There have also been studies of the related suicide weapons developed by the Japanese armed forces (the "Okha" manned rocket bombs and "Kaiten" manned torpedoes), in part in response to the improvised attack planes used in the Philippines, as described here, in part from similar but independent roots. "The Divine Wind" appears to minimize the participation of the Japanese Army in the attacks, possibly because the co-authors relied on their own recollections, backed up by naval records, instead of conducting a full study of all such operations.
Although some of these efforts caused tremendous suffering, it seems clear that the Japanese commanders never received accurate information on their successes and failures, and did not make much of an effort to find better tactics for a concept which some felt had been imposed upon them by junior officers. (Note that Ohnishi initially had to act rather obliquely.) That struggle to change the official tactical doctrine to one more in line with the prevailing political ideology (and the actual practices it suggested) is in fact one of the points raised by the account from Rikihei Inoguchi and Tadashi Nakajima. Later studies have argued that the pressure to adopt the tactic came from several sources, and that the authors have inflated Ohnishi's role (and their own), although, again, their reporting of what they themselves witnessed and did is not necessarily in question.
Material, tactical and strategic issues, however, are not the main concern of "Divine Wind" -- it is the story of the naval pilots, veterans and raw recruits, from as close to their experience as it is possible to reach.
Genuine insight into a little-understood practice.......2001-03-22
Edited from the first-hand accounts of the officers responsible for developing the first Kamikaze corps, _Divine Wind_ was almost certainly the first clear portrait of what went on in the minds of the men who decided to face certain death with a good hope of harming the enemy, against almost certain death with little prospect of doing any harm at all.
Contrary to popular American belief, the "Divine Wind" actions were counter to the deeply-held traditions of the Japanese Navy. As the last bastion of the old samurai class, Naval officers viewed a battle death without serious chance to harm the enemy as a disgrace, not an honor. At the time of the first attacks, the Naval Air Corp's aircraft were hopelessly outclassed, their state of repair and readiness was abysmal, and their pilots were woefully inexperienced and sorely lacking in chances for flight time. Faced with these facts, and under pressure from their own men, Inoguchi and Nakajima (with difficulty) secured permission for the first suicide attacks.
The true story is far from the sensationalistic view painted on the History Channel or in War At Sea, and the two former officers paint it with as much dignity as they know how. It begins to dispell the stereotypes of contempt for life and paint a picture of what it was like to be a proud warrior in a cause you had begun to realize you could not win. This is must reading for anyone who wants to understand how it feels at the wrong end of the stick.
Book Description
In the last days of World War II, the Japanese unleashed a new breed of warrior. They were the kamikaze-idealistic young men believing there could be no greater glory than to sacrifice their lives in suicide attacks to defend their homeland. But what of those men who took the sacred oath to die in battle-and lived? Soon after the 9/11 attacks, ethnographer M.G. Sheftall was given unprecedentedly intimate access to the cloistered community of Japan's last remaining kamikaze corps survivors. The result is a poignant and unforgettable glimpse into the lives and mindsets of former kamikaze pilots who never completed their final missions.
Customer Reviews:
Fine history, compelling story, insightful cultural observations.......2007-04-14
There are several things one can gather about Sheftall by reading "Blossoms in the Wind". Foremost is that he can write a good story. In this case, the usual skills must be supplemented by patience and the keen ear of an excellent listener. He is one who can actively elicit long forgotten or painfully repressed memories from the haze of time and the maze of survivor's guilt, crushed expectations of victory, humiliation of defeat, and suspicion of one who is both from the enemy camp, so to speak, and young. It implies Keeganesk respect, genuine and deep, for the profession of arms and the special esteem reserved for those who sacrifice for what they consider a worthy cause. But in the end it requires an ability to write well and this Sheftall can do.
Sheftall has skill in description. An example, minor to the main thesis but which provides setting and tone is his easy use of the vocabulary of architectural historical styles, aesthetics, and ornamental and functional details. Images of the people he writes about are brought to the mind's eye in a few words with perhaps special solicitude on behalf of the female form - the caressing recreation of the semi-salacious angels in "Chinkon no Mitsugi" being a pointed example. His descriptors give character and life to the people and events narrated in the book yet serve also to remind the reader that this text is documentation. He is fastidious about the machines of war, worrying over evolutionary development in aircraft or model changes in watercraft. Yet these delineations do not burden the reader but rather clarify or move the action of the story. These salutes to accuracy are reassuring in an historian and no doubt his recordings and photographs will serve as important primary sources on this topic well into the future.
Like de Tocqueville, whose broader vistas into American culture stemmed from his study of US prisons, Sheftall provides insights behind what is often the inscrutable face of Japanese culture beyond the title's subject. The men and women who live to tell the "kamikaze" tale seem to me a character study of rugged individualism not typically thought of as a Japanese virtue. These survivors, after the war, take risks, establish businesses and in general seem to behave in a manner beyond what might have been indicated by their caste. To the extent that this is true, might the phenomenon be explained as the self-liberation claimed by those who have embraced the inevitability of death only to be given, by grace or chance, an indefinite reprieve? May it represent the need to achieve for those comrades whose crowded hour was their final hour? Perhaps it is a cultural idiosyncrasy credit given to those whose loyalty and commitment to the emperor and collective are proved beyond doubt. Whatever the case, there is a certain irony at work in that the "tokko" program's systematic reduction of individual qualities that could hinder total dedication to the mission would create in the survivors the moral fortitude to find their own way. Contrast them with growing number of "hikikomori", marginalized young men who, like Japan itself often enough, choose voluntary isolation in the confusion of stifling cultural expectations and fear of the new.
Sheftall provides a carefully evolving narrative that sustains a reader's belief in what is nearly unbelievable. His challenge is to explain these young warriors' embrace of death and the lingering reverence for their sacrifice in an age where such fanaticism is mostly associated with terrorism. He does this, sometimes touchingly, sometimes with humor, through incisive observation, careful reconstruction of the mood and perceptions in Japan at the time, and a humane sympathy for the very real people who tell their stories.
Outstanding!.......2007-02-15
Really an outstanding book from a rather unique point of view. This book would make an excellent addition to a high school reading list - in both the US and in Japan.
A finely balanced work that demystifies the 'Kamikaze'........2007-02-11
M. G. Sheftall has produced a very finely balanced account of the Japanese suicide attack programs of World War II. This is a major feat, as the Tokko ('special attack') program is a field so larded with biased and poorly-researched work that a serious historical approach must require doubting or discounting a great deal of what has already been written.
Sheftall has done what any responsible historian should when dealing with such a recent set of events: he went and talked directly to those involved. Unlike accounts of the same events from the Allied side, however, this was something he could only achieve by first learning to speak Japanese, behaving correctly in the presence of very sensitive people and leaving his own agenda at the interview room door. Sheftall happily has a strong grasp of effective techniques for this work, and the result is a very good read presented in a style that mixes skilfully-wrought historical accounts with gentle first-person reportage somewhat reminiscent of Bill Bryson. Sheftall visits and describes the shrines and societies that today perpetuate the bonds forged among the wartime Tokko personnel - both the successful and the survivors - and manages neither to sneer nor fawn; he meets and travels with men who in their youth accepted self-willed extinction in defence of their homeland without once judging them or sensationalising their accounts, and he leaves at least this reader with such a clear picture of the Tokko program as to make one wonder why so much mystery and myth surrounded it for so long.
As Sheftall points out near the end of the book, twentieth-century history is simply not taught in Japanese schools. Japan nowadays is gradually shedding its MacArthurian post-war sackcloth, however, and in view of the actions and pronouncements of its neighbors it is understandably keen to reassert itself in the region before the balance of power tilts too far towards some very unwholesome regimes. A steady supply of dispassionate, balanced accounts of Japan's recent history will help reassure the world that it is not unaware of its dark past, but the shortage of serious native scholarship in such matters still means that these will have to come in large part from foreigners. With this great book, Sheftall steps up to join John Dower, Herbert Bix and the many others who are quietly helping Japan get its historical house in order.
A unique moment in time (and its human consequences).......2006-11-08
The concept of the Kamikaze warrior has always been looked upon with horror and fascination in the West. In many ways, it seemed to Americans, these "brain-washed" pilots were a natuaral offshoot of Bushido-inspired Banzai Charges and the National Death Cult that gripped Japan more and more as the tide of the war turned against it.
Author Sheftall has done an outstanding job of breaking through these sterotypes to tell the very human side of Japanese suicide corps. Motivated by desperation and love of family and country, driven by subtle coercion, scores of young men swore to give all they were and ever would be for their country, and the ripples from those decisions still affect lives to this day.
This is an outstanding book and a must-read for any serious student of the Second World War.
The true stories of Japan's kamikaze corps survivors .......2006-07-10
Blossoms In The Wind: Human Legacies Of The Kamikaze presents the true stories of Japan's kamikaze corps survivors - pilots who were slated to sacrifice their lives in battle during World War II, but who survived through chance or fate. Now after the September 11th attacks, in an era when suicide attacks are becoming an increasingly serious threat in the present, Blossoms In The Wind explores what can bind a human heart and soul to commit to the ultimate sacrifice, as well as the bonds of brotherhood that remain between fellow warriors after sixty years of peace. A profound and directly relevant testimony, often directly recounting the survivors' perspectives in their own words.
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21st Century Complete Guide to Wind Energy and Wind Turbines, Wind Power, Low Wind Speed Systems, Small Wind Electric Systems, Practical Information, Second Edition (Three CD-ROM Set)
U.S. Government
Manufacturer: Progressive Management
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Wind Energy Basics: A Guide to Small and Micro Wind Systems
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This up-to-date and comprehensive electronic book on three CD-ROMs presents an incredible and totally revised collection of important documents and publications about wind energy, wind turbines, small wind electric systems, low wind speed systems, wind farms, Wind Powering America program, wind energy resource atlas, practical consumer information, and research by the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL). Encyclopedic coverage of every practical aspect of wind power is covered, including: United States Department of Energy (DOE) Wind Energy Resource Atlas; Wind Energy Meteorological Measurements; National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) National Wind Technology Center; Wind Energy Photo Gallery; Wind Turbine Technical Reports; Wind Resource Maps; Wind Power Today. Wind energy coverage includes: NREL Renewable Resource Data; DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy; NREL Information Resources Catalog; Director and Management; Education Programs; Environmental Safety & Health; Climate Challenge; NREL Publications, News, Events. DOE Wind Energy Resource Atlas of the United States includes: National Wind Resource; Average Annual Wind Resource; Seasonal Variations of the Wind Resource; Certainty of Resource Estimates; Areal Distribution of Wind Resource; Regional Summaries (Northwest, North Central, Great Lakes, Northeast, East Central, Southeast, South Central, Southern Rocky Mountain, Southwest, others); Data Analysis and Assessment Methodologies;! Identification of Wind Data Sources; Wind Data Screening; Times Scales Used; Calculation of Wind Power Density; Vertical Adjustment; Wind Power Estimates for Mountainous Areas; Qualitative Indicators; Wind Power Classes; Classes of Land Surface Form. DOE Meteorological Field Measurements at Potential and Actual Wind Turbine Sites. Wind Turbine Technical Reports; Wind Power Today: Wind Energy Program Highlights 2002. NREL National Wind Technology Center: Working with Industry; Facilities Tour; For Consumers; NTWC Library; Applied Research; Turbine Research; Cooperative Research and Testing. Wind turbines convert the kinetic energy in the wind into mechanical power that turns a generator that produces electricity to power homes, schools, businesses, and communities. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the world's winds could supply more than 10 times the current total world energy demand. With today's wind turbine technology, wind power could supply 20% of the United States' electricity. There are two ways you can power your home or business with wind: You may be able to purchase wind energy in the form of green power from your local utility, or you may be able to install a small grid-connected wind electric system to provide part of your electricity needs. A wind turbine rated from 5 to 15 kilowatts (kW) could lower your utility bill by 50% to 90%. Wind energy is a free, inexhaustible renewable resource. Wind energy is a source of clean, non-polluting electricity. A single utility scale (750 kW) wind turbine can prevent the emission of 5000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere each year. It would take 500 acres of forest to absorb that much CO2.
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Second Wind: For Those Struggling to Get Up Again
Charles R. Swindoll
Manufacturer: Zondervan
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- Surprising and appealing
- Dreamy?
- Ghostwritten?
- Magic mushrooms
- This is not your typical Dick Francis novel
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Second Wind
Dick Francis
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Field of Thirteen
ASIN: 0515129232
Release Date: 2000-10-03 |
Amazon.com
Dick Francis's legion of admirers can relax: his year off from writing since the 1998 publication of Field of Thirteen is over, and a new vigor has entered his style. Longtime readers will be happy to find the customary racetrack skullduggery, galvanized by some fascinating new elements.
The very opening of Second Wind signals something new, with Francis's protagonist, meteorologist Perry Stuart, fighting for his life as he flies through the eye of storm on Trox Island, a blighted place steeped in guano and harboring a nasty secret. "But now, as near dead as dammit, I tumbled like a rag-doll piece of flotsam in towering gale-driven seas that sucked unimaginable tons of water from the deeps ...."
When the reader encountered details of the racing world in Francis's earlier thrillers such as Whip Hand and Reflex, they had the satisfying ring of authenticity. The same is true in Second Wind--Stuart's character was developed with the help of BBC weatherman John Kettley.
Although this is a new venue for Francis, he still has a knack for quickening the reader's pulse with a few carefully chosen words: "Despair was too strong a word for it. Perhaps despondency was better. When they came for me, they came with guns." --Barry Forshaw
Book Description
When his plane goes down during a hurricane, weatherman Perry Stuart is stranded on a desolate Caribbean island. And what he sees there gives him zero chance of survival.
Customer Reviews:
Surprising and appealing.......2007-09-16
A friend had praised Dick Francis for years, finally handed me "Forfeit," which I enjoyed and reviewed (qv).
Afterwards, another very intelligent friend thinks so highly of Dick Francis that, unbidden, he loaned me his entire Francis library! He lugged the box of books straight down the very long stairway from his fourth-floor high-ceiling loft, where he has lived forever in Old City, Philadelphia, and which is his professional photography headquarters. (You want pictures done anywhere in the world, he'll travel. But if studio shots are your call, you take those steep stairs.)
I took up "Second Wind."
Francis's prologue brings to mind the first three words of Melville's "Moby Dick": "Call me Ishmael." Much quoted, especially with shipwrecked Ishmael's attribution to Job: "And I only am escaped alone to tell thee."
Dick Francis opens with his narrator Dr. Perry Stuart reflecting on a similar circumstance: "I tumbled like a rag-doll piece of flotsam in towering gale-driven seas that sucked unimaginable tons of water from the deeps and hurled them along in liquid mountains faster than a Derby gallop. Sometimes the colossal waves swept me inexorably with them. Sometimes they buried me until my agonized lungs begged the ultimate relief of inhaling anything, even water, when only air would keep the engine turning."
Perry, with a PhD in physics, is a BBC meteorologist on daily television, forecasting the weather for the British Isles and farther, including the Continent, Florida, and the Caribbean. The racing world attends to his words about expected conditions at racecourses in France, Germany, and wherever.
One of Perry's fellow meteorologists is the outstandingly handsome Kris Ironside, whose passion is flying his small Cherokee airplane. Although a good pilot, Kris has a rather wacky personality. Perry joined him in the wacky goal to experience flying through the eye of a hurricane in a light aircraft. So, off to Florida they go and end up in the crashing experience Perry describes.
With a large cast of horse owners, trainers, assistants, and including a filly with a mysterious ailment, there are connections to terrorists, arms dealers, the flamboyant underworld, and British counterintelligence. The twists and turns are surprising, the love interests appealing. Francis's writing is excellent. He is suspenseful, informed, and funny.
Incidentally, your memory bank is likely always to include the identity behind "second wind" of the title.
Dreamy?.......2006-08-20
This is my 6th Francis novel; not one of the best, I preferred Decider, Reflex, & Enquiry. Francis took a year off before writing this book, perhaps the title is a pun? Was this his "Second Wind?" But, "it's an ill wind that..." so there are folks who will like this one & folks who dislike it--not surprising as there's a lot to like & dislike. It follows Francis' formula--a unlikely/likable hero inadvertently getting into trouble. There's much information on the hero's profession/hobbies--in this case meteorology (hurricanes & TV weathercasting), light planes, & radiation physics, with a few links to horse racing. As a former physicist, I don't think he did it justice; he had professional help with meteorology. His hero gets professional help (his friend Kris needed some too) except when walking into danger---Francis' signature behavior. But this complicated book's more adventure, spy, or thriller novel than mystery; it's well-written, easy/fast reading, humorous, & enjoyable. Perry, his grandmother & her nurse are all very likable. But there are faults too; people can be irrational, but absurd?. As usual romance is very briefly described, but here its outcome is abrupt at best. Perry's relationship with Kris is highly problematic--bipolar or not, Kris is strange--why act as he did with the envelope? Glenda's actions are also strange & abrupt. Though Francis cleverly connects seemingly unrelated sub-plots--cows, radiation, sick horse, dumb/disorganized conspirators are over the top. Don't protect the precious folder (leave it in a desk) but kill to get it back. A master spy looking for the folder when Perry had given it to his co-horts already? It's too far-fetched. As escape fiction it was fun, but it borders on fantasy. Maybe it was a dream?
Ghostwritten?.......2006-08-08
I agree with some of the other reviewers here, that this book has a very different, more scattered, voice than his others, and may possibly have been ghostwritten. There is reference in the book to ghostwriting, which doesn't fit in with the plot, so that may be a clue. Also, the horses/racing were much less prevalent.
Twice the word "than" is misspelled as "then." He never misspells in his other books. Of course, perhaps this one had a different editor, who didn't catch it.
Overall, it is an OK story, but I do wonder if he wrote it. Why would a successful author risk his reputation with a ghostwriter though? It's a mystery.
Magic mushrooms.......2005-10-04
TV weather man, Perry Stuart, accepts the offer of a colleague to fly into the eye of a hurricane, off the coast of Miami, to measure its diameter and to study its effects. The pilot loses control of the plane under these conditions and, when the plane goes down, Perry is marooned on a tiny island in the Caribbean from which all the inhabitants have been evacuated. Being stranded on this mile long island for four days gives our intrepid hero the chance to wander around at leisure and, with the help of a handy Geiger counter which was left in a safe, which of course he was able to crack, finds unaccepably high levels of radiation in the area, formerly used for growing fancy mushrooms. Perry is rescued from the island, where he kept himself alive by drinking milk from a herd of cows, by a team of people dressed in anti- radiation suits, and who return him, blindfolded, to Miami. The plot is thickened by a consortium of would be crooks, intent on dealing with the ingredients of bomb making, encounters with shadowy figures from MI6 and an assortment of race course habituees who wander in and out of the plot. Of course our hero, whom I neglected to mention, is not only a handsome and charming TV weatherman, but has also a PH.D in physics, sorts everything out, separates the goodies from the baddies, and gets the girl.
This is not your typical Dick Francis novel.......2002-09-14
If you wish to read one of the dozens of Dick Francis novels, and every mystery fan should, please don't start with Second Wind. To be sure the writing has all of the usual Dick Francis qualities of concise yet telling prose. But the plot involving not a horseman but a BBC meterologist, Dr. Perry Stuart, and his fellow meterologist Kris, the desire of suicide-minded Kris to fly through a hurricane, the tiny island of Trox, now deserted, and the mysterious goings-on there, and the collection of folks met at a party at Newmarket is in the end unsatisfying. The plot was strained at times, and the various physical poundings befelling Perry, including surviving a hurricane with only a life vest, seemed more cartoon-like than real.
Although Francis had the help of a professional meterologist for the atmosphere, still the impression was a very superficial one and in a way misleading. There was little or no talk that I recall of the various models that forecasters rely on, or the atmospheric teleconnections that enable forecasters to predict with some accuracy the weather a week down the road. Also, Francis has Hurricane Sheila whipping up the waves in November which would be some 17 named storms, close to if not a record for the number of named Atlantic storms in a single season.
In sum, Francis seemed to have trouble in deciding whether this is mystery or suspense, or whether he should highlight the business of weather forecasting or the machinations of terrorists and their helpers. Read Dick Francis, but not this one.
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