Book Description
The twentieth century was astonishing in all regards, shaking the foundations of practically every aspect of human life and thought, physics not least of all. Beginning with the publication of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, through the wild revolution of quantum mechanics, and up until the physics of the modern day (including the astonishing revelation, in 1998, that the Universe is not only expanding, but doing so at an ever-quickening pace), much of what physicists have seen in our Universe suggests that much of our Universe is unseen—that we live in a dark cosmos.
Everyone knows that there are things no one can see—the air you're breathing, for example, or, to be more exotic, a black hole. But what everyone does not know is that what we can see—a book, a cat, or our planet—makes up only 5 percent of the Universe. The rest—fully 95 percent—is totally invisible to us; its presence discernible only by the weak effects it has on visible matter around it.
This invisible stuff comes in two varieties—dark matter and dark energy. One holds the Universe together, while the other tears it apart. What these forces really are has been a mystery for as long as anyone has suspected they were there, but the latest discoveries of experimental physics have brought us closer to that knowledge. Particle physicist Dan Hooper takes his readers, with wit, grace, and a keen knack for explaining the toughest ideas science has to offer, on a quest few would have ever expected: to discover what makes up our dark cosmos.
Customer Reviews:
An excellent read for the non-scientist.......2007-02-21
Dark Cosmos has an excellent narrative style and explains the concepts of dark matter in a very understandable fashion. It begins with the easier theories and then moves into string theory and other pretty advanced concepts. It's a great read even if there comes a point where it no longer makes sense to a non-physicist.
A Simplified View of the Way we Understand the World.......2007-02-05
This is the best book I've read on Dark Matter and Dark Energy. Not only does Dr. Hooper explain why these things are needed to explain how we think our Universe works, but as he writes you get some feeling of the awe and excitement that he feels about the subject. You get the feeling that he goes to work every day looking forward with great excitement to see what he might learn. And he is able to bring this excitement down to the printed page so that you too feel that we are on the brink of a big break through in our understanding of how the world works.
As an example. At one point he is making some projections about what might be discovered in the future.
About one paragraph he says: 'This paragraph is wild speculation.'
About the next paragraph he says: 'This paragraph is ridiculously wild speculation.
From there he goes on to the third paragraph, about which he says: 'What is the word that means more ridiculous than ridiculous?'
The only real problem about this book is that next week, or next year, or maybe 25 years from now there will come a breakthrough that will answer all of these questions. As Einstein took Newton's equasions and extended them into the very small and the very large, we are looking for the next 'Einstein' to take his work and extend it to cover what the experimental physicists and cosmologists are discovering.
very well written.......2007-01-26
I am not a scientist. I have no training in modern cosmology or physics, and I read this book simply out of an interest in the subject. What struck me most, and what I least expected from a popular science book, was the prose. The subject itself is vastly intriguing, and Dr. Hooper does an excellent job of conveying this information. The only chapter that left me relatively baffled was the chapter on quantum physics, but (let's be honest) that's strange stuff and it is not the intent of this book to explain it. The thrust of this book is dark matter, and Dr. Hooper is an engaging and insightful authority. His book is full of information, but more importantly, it is a pleasure to read.
really dark.......2007-01-20
This book is introduction to cosmology for general reader rather than detailed information about dark matter and dark energy.
I like popular physics books. I have bought the book to learn about dark matter and dark energy, but after reading I have become more cloudy. These concepts are still in their infancy. Untested theories (supersymmetry , string and inflation) give support these undetected dark matter and inexplicable quantity of dark energy.
The author tells all of intriguing related topics to give some idea of the subject. I got much out of the theories of supersymmetry, inflation and the life cycles of stars.
Excellent Update on Cosmology.......2007-01-10
In a style that is both authoritative and accessible to most interested readers, the author glides through cosmological theories and observations with the primary focus of gaining insight into the nature of dark matter and dark energy. Throughout the book enough information is provided on the relevant history of cosmology and that of particle physics to make this fascinating story so gripping. Potentially difficult concepts are clearly explained using useful and familiar analogies. The prose is clear, friendly, engaging and quite captivating. In my view, this excellent book should be of interest to everyone, but science buffs will likely relish it the most.
Book Description
The dark matter problem is one of the most fundamental and profoundly difficult problems in the history of science. Not knowing what makes up most of the mass in the Universe goes to the heart of our understanding of the Universe and our place in it. In Search of Dark Matter is the story of the emergence of the dark matter problem, from the initial 'discovery' of dark matter by Jan Oort to contemporary explanations for the nature of dark matter and its role in the origin and evolution of the Universe.
Written for the intelligent non-scientist and scientist alike, it spans a variety of scientific disciplines, from observational astronomy to particle physics. Concepts that the reader will encounter along the way are at the cutting edge of scientific research. However the themes are explained in such a way that no prior understanding of science beyond a high school education is necessary.
Customer Reviews:
In Search of Dark Matter.......2007-08-04
I found this book to be very informative, up to date, and could be understood by the layman
An EXCELLENT book on Dark Matter.......2007-05-10
This book sets out the evidence for missing matter in the universe in an entertaining yet thorough way. There is virtually no math in the entire book, and yet each subject area is treated fully. I had thought the first evidence for dark matter was star rotation rates in galaxies as set out by Vera Rubin and others. However this book traces the roots of the "something is wrong with our picture of the universe" back to the 1930s and Fritz Zwicky and Jan Oort--two astronomers who could not be more different from each other. And that is another strength of this book--we learn something about Zwicky and Oort without being seriously sidetracked.
"In Search of Dark Matter" strikes a perfect balance between moving the story along (and it does read like a story) and stopping here and there for brief asides about the personalities and milieu involved at the various stages of dark matter research. Finally, alternatives such as MOND theory are discussed. This book is not a deep tome--it is only roughly 150 pages. But it certainly piqued my interest and made me want to find out more. The authors succeed in bringing up most topics assuming little or no background in astronomy, yet don't get mired explaining the basics. A great read!
Excellent Book.......2007-02-22
The book is very well organized and enjoyable to read. Well done!
Amazon.com
In Search the Dark, the third entry in Charles Todd's remarkable series, the walking-wounded survivors of World War I crowd the English landscape. Scotland Yard's Inspector Rutledge is one of many who suffer from shell shock. He constantly hears--and responds to--the voice of Hamish, a Scottish soldier he shot for cowardice. His latest case does not help his fragile state of mind as it involves another weary and discouraged veteran, Bert Mowbray.
On his way to Lyme Regis to search for work, Bert looks out of the train window in a town called Singleton Magna, and sees an unbelievable sight--his wife and two children who he thought were killed in a London bombing raid. He leaps off the train and tries to find his family, racing desperately across fields and country roads, and finally winding up asleep under a tree. Meanwhile, the battered body of a woman is found on the edge of a cornfield, and Mowbray is arrested. Is the woman his wife? Did he kill her? And what happened to the two children who were with her?
Everywhere Rutledge looks, he shows us various forms of damage caused by the war--from the hopes of a local girl whose lover returned with a French wife, to the trauma that Mowbray is going through. As in the first two books, A Test of Wills and Wings of Fire, Todd demonstrates the massive damage done to an entire country by focusing on the small, personal battles of the survivors. --Dick Adler
Book Description
The introspective hero of wings of Fire and A Test of Wills (Edgar Award nominee) return in a provocative new mystery. Inspector Ian Rutledge, haunted by memories of World War I and the harrowing presence of Hamish, a dead soldier, is "a superb characterization of a man whose wounds have made him a stranger i his own land." (The New York Times Book Review)A dead woman two missing children bring Inspector Rutledge to the lovely Dorset town of Singeton Magna, where the truth lies buried with the dead. A tormented veteran whose family died in an enemy bombing is the chief suspect. Dubious, Rutledge presses on to find the real killer. And when another body is found in the rich Dorset earth, his quest reaches into the secret lives of villagers and Londoners whose privileged positions and private passions give them every reason to thwart him. Someone is protecting a murderer. And two children are out there, somewhere, the dark....
Customer Reviews:
Third one is a charmer.......2006-07-24
Ian Rutledge was a top homicide detective with Scotland Yard before he went off to WWI for 'King and Country'. Like many men who spent too much time in the trenches and saw too much death and waste of men's lives; he is haunted by the ghost of a man (Hamish MacLeod) he had to shoot for cowardice.
He is sent to Singleton Magna to look for the children of another scarred veteran who may have killed them and his wife. The problem is that the wife and children were killed four years ago in a Zeppelin bombing in London.
This town is filled with men like him; Simon Wyatt, the son of the family that has supplied the last three generations of MPs; the nephew of the pub owner who is recovering from massive abdominial wounds and a broken heart, and the son of the late Church Rector who was wounded in the head in France.
Added to this group is the French wife of Wyatt, his ex-fiancee, her best friend and hired assistant to Simon, a missing parlor maid, the local inspector who is to glad to jump to any conclusion that will end this case, and the ex-fiancee's father who is an MP and former government minister.There are also all the other locals, from quiet farmers to the town busybody who all have their own ideas of who and why the murders were committed.
In addition to dealing with all these people, he is still dealing with his own demon (Hamish) who is never far below the surface; and always happy to tell Rutledge of his failings and shortcomings. If you can figure out the reason and the murderer before the denoument, your a better detective than me.
Search the Dark (An Ian Rutledge Mystery).......2006-06-27
Delivered in a timely manner and condition as advertised
The Fragile Psyches of Combat Veterans.......2003-07-31
While the term PTSD is not used in this novel-- and rightfully so because it is set in the years when it was still called shell shock-- however, the manifestations of this condition are obvious and heart wrenching.
At the end of WWI when the veterans returned to England it was to find a population struggling desperately for normalcy. But the men who returned home were not the same men who left and the family and friends they returned to had borne their own share of losses.
Todd evocatively lays out the story of Ian Rutledge who has returned to his job in Scotland Yard, but finds wherever he turns more human wreckage from the War that shattered his own life and left him with an unseen companion whose distinctive voice haunts his days, a bit of his soul broken off and speaking to him in the voice of a dead man.
This novel opens with the the story of another shell shocked veteran, Mowbray, and the body of a woman who may be his wife. At least it would be convenient for the local Police officials if it were his wife. Rutledge is brought in to try to find Mowbray's two children-- it being feared that he has also killed them as well.
However all is not as it appears and the tragedy grows darker as Rutledge digs deeper into the lives of the inhabitants of the community.
This book is infused with a powerful sense of compassion. It's very well written and deals with a subject that is timely but also timeless.
Very highly recommended.
I enjoyed this series immensely.......2003-02-02
"Charles Todd" (a mother/son writing team) has/have created a memorable inspector and a haunting sidekick in this series. I particularly liked the war flashbacks, which sometimes were important for solving the mystery. Sometimes the situations were improbable, but...it's mystery fiction, where improbability is typical. All I can recommend to the authors is that they tie up the loose ends with a bit more tidiness and detail more of Rutledge's logic in solving the mysteries.
Excellent Addition to an Excellent Series.......2002-04-02
in this third outing, Ian Rutledge, and his conscience Hamish, are sent to Dorset to investigate a murder of a woman and the disappearance of her two children. He follows each clue only to find more questions and additional clues.
This is British procedural writing at it's best. Todd has not suffered from second or third book syndrome. His writing is precise and concise - each word chosen with care. Rutledge contunues to be a tortured soul who is a compassionate and intelligent investigator. Todd's ending surprised me, but that just makes for good reading.
If you enjoy procedurals, make sure you read this series. If you've wanted to try a procedural, but didn't know where to begin, begin with this one - all others will pale by comparison.
Book Description
In the middle of the last century, Norbert Wiener-ex-child prodigy and brilliant MIT mathematician -founded the science of cybernetics, igniting the information-age explosion of computers, automation, and global telecommunications. Wiener was the first to articulate the modern notion of "feedback," and his ideas informed the work of computer pioneer John von Neumann, information theorist Claude Shannon, and anthropologists Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead. His best-selling book, Cybernetics, catapulted him into the public spotlight, as did his chilling visions of the future and his ardent social activism. So what happened? Why is his work virtually unknown today? And what, in fact, is Wiener's legacy? In this remarkable book, award-winning journalists Conway and Siegelman set out to rescue Wiener's genius from obscurity and to explore the many ways in which his groundbreaking ideas continue to shape our lives. Based on a wealth of primary sources (including some newly declassified WW II and Cold War-era documents) and exclusive interviews with Wiener's family and closest colleagues, the book reveals an extraordinarily complex figure, whose high-pressure childhood, manic depression, and troubled relationships had a profound effect on his scientific work. No one interested in the intersection of technology and culture will want to miss this epic story of one of the twentieth century's most brilliant and colorful figures.
Customer Reviews:
100,000% Shovelware.......2007-08-18
From a historical and economic and sociological perspective, this book is utter propaganda.
For example, from page 340, "To date, India's engineers and entrepreneurs have had the most success following the path Wiener chartered for their country's advancement, and while their numbers are still small compared to the whole of their population, they are reaping many of the benefits Weiner envisioned without the drawbacks of older models of industrialization."
WHAT A F--KING JOKE!!! I'm dying of laughter!
There is categorically no relationship between India's newfound economic success and Norbert Wiener. None. Na-da. Nothing. Zip-0!
And that was just a single sentence from this text. Just imagine what else lurks in 400 pages of writing from what are two absolute fools. Flo conway and Jim siegelman are the stupidest writers ever!
A tale of what might have been.......2007-06-02
My own introduction to Wiener was through the extraordinary insight and published works of Stafford Beer (acknowledged by Wiener as the inventor of Management Cybernetics). Beers insights into Industrial Engineering, Operations Research and Management Cybernetics, seem to have more and more relevance for managers, as the world we live in becomes more and more complex.
I am of the opinion that Cybernetics provides a Philosophical and Technical Framework that helps to explain why the widely practiced and innovative business-improvement approach of Lean - Six Sigma has been so successful.
This is what Beer had to say about Wieners seminal text on Cybernetics "Difficult, quixotic, immensely stimulating (then and now), Cybernetics split the scientific world (for those who read it) down the middle. Think of it like this: the great man (he really was) holds forth to his friends after dinner, ruins the tablecloth by scribbling mathematics all over it, sings a little song in German, and changes your life. It is tough going; you have to stay the night"
Beers review grabbed my attention and encouraged me to learn more about Wiener; and then a couple of years ago I was troubled by the following review from the prolific, oftentimes, acerbic polymath Cosmo Rohilla Shalizi A Professor Of Statistics at Carnegie Mellon University - . "A science which seems to have dissolved into the others. A lot of good science was done under this banner; it just doesn't seem to hold together ......As a study of abstract machines in general, it becomes identical with dynamics, or computation theory, or some amalgam of both; algebra, even. As a more limited science of "communication and control" it suffers from the fact that communication and control in animals is, when you get down to blood and guts, rather different from communication and control in machines, and neither resembles the mechanisms of C&C in society..... It may be that we haven't exhausted the potential of a science of communication and control, but I think at this point the burden of proof would be on the optimists. Dissolved? Not entirely. There's an old joke that if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate, and not everything associated with cybernetics has gone into solution. Caked on the bottom of the reaction vessel we find: A prefix which seems indispensible to marketroids; the occasion for a great deal of vaporizing in the social sciences and humanities; and a peculiarly navel-gazing sub-sect of systems theory, which isn't exactly God's gift to the advancement of learning in the first place."
Clearly Cosmo is no ones fool. Are, those of us who still think that the work of Wiener and Beer is relevant for today's problems, really part of a peculiar naval gazing sect?
As far as Management Cybernetics is concerned, irrespective of what old Cosmo thinks, Management Cybernetics really does provide all of us who deal with systems and organisations - I guess that's every one of us - with insightful and practical solutions for managing complexity. Beer like his mentor Wiener has been a neglected and oftentimes maligned prophet - just look at his poor reviews on this site. Management Cybernetics is, however, very much alive and well. One of the fastest growing consultancies in Europe, and a much respected competitor to my own practice - The Malik Group in Switzerland - have built their business model on cybernetic principles and are providing truly innovative solutions for their blue chip clients. Interestingly they have people with the title cybernetician on the pay role - Norbert still rules as far as they are concerned!
As for Cybernetics contribution to main stream science - Cosmo is, sadly, correct. In mainstream academia Cybernetics has been largely subsumed by other disciplines. But, until I read this book it puzzled me why. Why, given the impressive start and promising march towards becoming a truly systemic and integrative scientific discipline, was Cybernetics stopped dead in its tracks?
Conway and Siegleman's provide us with the answer to this question, and, by the way, it has absolutely nothing to do with science or logic!
Hopefully their tale will leave you, as it did me, with a profound sense of what might have been, had cybernetics progressed in line with the Philosophy and Vision of the Original Knights of Circular Causality.
This is a brilliant biography.
Dark Hero of the Information Age recounts his life and discoveries - and the consequences of his discoveries........2006-11-06
Dark Hero of the Information Age: In Search of Nortbert Wiener the Father of Cybernetics tells of an ex-child prodigy and MIT mathematician who founded cybernetics - and then spent the rest of his life warning the world of the consequences of the new technologies he helped foster. Surprisingly, his works and his warnings are relatively unknown today - despite the fact many of his concerns and predictions came true. Dark Hero of the Information Age recounts his life and discoveries - and the consequences of his discoveries.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
superbly researched and quite interesting.......2006-08-10
Flo Conway and Jim Siegelman have put an immense effort into writing an exhaustive review of Norbert Wiener, one of the great geniuses of the last century. Wiener spoke an ungodly number of languages, got his PhD from Harvard at the age of 19, made immense contributions to mathematics, biology, computer sciences, medicine, political thought - even in McCarthy's heyday he had no qualms about speaking his mind -, etc, etc.
As generally is the case with biographies of Wunderkinder, the authors ultimately are not equal to their subjects, not for lack of effort, but for lack of having the intellect necessary to understand and do justice to an über-prodigy. And so it is with this book; rather than to analyze and judge Wiener's various accomplishments and beliefs, which range from phenomenal scientific accomplishments to believing that he had been reincarnated, the authors prefer to "tell it as it was" and let the reader draw his or her conclusions.
Despite these inevitable limitations, this book is well worth reading, albeit thoughtfully.
I was there as Prof. Weiner's Student.......2005-10-11
When I first saw the title "Dark Hero of ...." I had to chuckle with the image it engendered of Norbert, dressed in a floppy Batman constume, goutee, thick glassed over his mask which of course hid his identy waddling down the corridors of Building 2, fighting crime in Tauberian Theorems.
The authors wrote a magnificent opus on a great man who, in today's environment, would have been classified as a victim of child abuse. Their facts and presentation carried me back to that era. But, I am uncomfortable with the intensionality that the term 'Dark' might leave in the reader so grant me the right to give an added facet.
As a senior at MIT during the 1959-1960 semesters I had the honor working with Weiner. Up front, my review arises from an unabashed gratitude and affection for a man whose influence and help were instrumental for all the good things that later transpired in my life over the last 45 years.
One day in the fall of 1959 I was walking near Weiner's office after having come out of Dirk Struik's office from a discussion of an item in the Advanced Tensor Analysis course I was taking from him. Just as I was passing by his office the classical Norbert Weiner yelled out " young man, can you come in and finish the calculations on the board". Honestly, I was totally naive and did not know anything about him except having seen him in the corridors.
"Sure" I said. As I entered the office he walked out. There on the dusty chalk board were a facsimile of a spread sheet, with rows of numbers scribbled across the board. I could not admit that I had no idea what the numbers represented, let alone what I was to do. Ego is a wonderful goad for creative problem solving. Seeing a number that looked like the sine of 30 degrees I quickly deciphered that the alternating lines were discrete values of the sine function, the parallel lines were filled with some varying numbers from a seemingly smooth function, and the next line looked like some multiplication/ addition of both. Norman Levinson's course in Complex Anaylsis came to the rescue. Weiner was performing a discrete fast Fourier Transform. Ten minutes later Weiner came in and saw that I had almost completed the spread sheet.
Looking over his glasses he asked "What are you doing here?". "Helping you, Professor" I responded, startled. "Can you come back tomorrow for some more work?" "Sure"
It turned out that he was perfroming a spectral analysis on a section of EEG readings Dr. John Barlow had given Weiner.
I eventually had to hand read the red graph and number the amplitudes. The picture appears in CYBERNTETICS 2nd edition.
One Saturday he directed me to "sit down and write". After a few lines I had the timerity to inquire what the heck was I doing.
His answer: "I'm dictating the upgrade to my book CYBRENETICS". My mistake was to inform him that I could touch type. Zap! Three hours later I threw in the towel. From then on, after math classes I would be sitting typing and learning more ideas and mathematical insight than any of the past 3.5 years. Note, no word processor, no electric type writer. The old fashioned finger toughening for Karate thrust kind.
My many mistaken sheets were then handed over to Weiner's secretary who produced a finished draft.
When the galleys came out I, among many others, reviewed and corrected them.
Weiner informed me that he considered "his students as colleagues" and he gave me the honor and respect that it entailed.
I noticed over the years that the truly great and self assured, including Doc Edgerton in Electric Engineering, treated with respect f those 'under' them. The not so great and their undeserved pomposity are legion in all walks of life.
A few vignettes of his Puckish sense of humor which were seen quite often are in order.
One Saturday, Weiner, who had to check his urine for sugar, came into the office to check it. "Good, all is well", he smiled, "Here, take it and dispose of it".
My response was as brash as anything I had ever done "Prof. Weiner, I have the deepest respect for you. I have had my rump fall asleep while tying your manuscript for hours. But, you take your G.. D....d sample yourelf"
Weiner burst out in laughter "Well, I tried." and waddled off. I just keeled over with laughter.
Weiner was subject to many folks who came to 'worship at his feet' and try to have him help on hair brained schemes.
Once such soul came in one day and proceded to blather. Norbert rose, took him by the elbow with a "I know someone who will really be able to help you", and dumped into Struick's office. From across the hall we heard Struik's Dutch yelling, while chasing the man out. Then, flushed faced, Dirk leaned into the office and hissed "Norbert, stop dumping your garbage into my office!" , and popped out. Norbert broke into a loud chuckle, looke at me, and just smiled.
A few years later Mrs. Weiner called and told me that Norbert was in Mass.General as he had fallen down and done serious damge to himself. I overcame my deep antipathy to hospitals and took my self over.
She informed me that the Professor was in a bad way and Prof. Lee had just left, totally depressed at seeing his mentors state. She told me not to stay too long but to see if I could get him to respond.
Entering his room, I heard Norbert moaning, leaning away from the door. How the wonderful inspiration came to me I have never figured out.
As I walked to his bed , in my most stentorian voice, I said "What 14 carat plated phoney!" He moaned, tried to turn, and went back to moaning.
"There is nothing wrong with you. I know you well enough to know that you faking it, just to avoid being drafted".
Much as he tried not to, he let out a loud laugh. I continued "I bet you are pestering all the doctors like Barlow, that Fourier Anaylysis and Tauberian Theorems can solve all medical problems. They have to listen to you!"
At that he slowly sat up, reached for his glasses and then went into a long story of how indeed he had such ideas, etc.
Mrs. Weiner was clearly taken aback at my brashness and when Norbert sat up she did not know what to do. While happily pontificating Norbert said "Margaret, light up a cigar for me". She lit up one his 'stinkies', handed it to him, and Norber was on his way. Soon after Frau Professor chased me out but I was elated beyond words.
That was the last time I ever saw Weiner but this wonderful book captured so many facets of this rare, great human,
My gratitude. I was there
John C. Kotelly MIT '60
Book Description
The Dark Ages are often considered a mysterious era. Once paid little interest by scholars, this period has yielded astonishing discoveries about its events and the people who lived through them. Based on the classic BBC television series, In Search of the Dark Ages embarks on an enthralling investigation of the mysterious centuries following the demise of the Roman Empire. Richly illustrated and highly engaging, In Search of the Dark Ages is sure to entertain as well as enlighten.
Coverage includes:
* Archaeological evidence for Queen Bodicea's terrible war of resistance against the Romans
* Evidence for the shadowy resistance leader who fought against the Germanic hordes after the fall of Rome-and who may have been the real King Arthur
* The discovery of the Sutton Hoo, a ship that offers intriguing clues about the origins of English kingdoms
* Ofaa, Alfred, and Althelsan, three great kings who laid England's political foundations
* The pivotal and fateful confrontation between King Harold and William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings.
Customer Reviews:
Cries out for Maps.......2007-04-14
I like the way Michael Wood presents history. His BBC documentaries are excellent. "In Search of the Dark Ages" reads like a TV series (and apparently is based on one), as its chapters are a series of vignettes of some of the most important British historical figures during the period of the first millennium (and in the case of William the Conqueror, just beyond).
Wood tells us about the Celtic warrior queen Boadicea; the defender of Roman Britain King Arthur; the Anglo-Saxon chieftain buried at Sutton Hoo, the Anglo-Saxon rulers Offa, Alfred the Great, and Athelstan; the Viking Eric Bloodaxe; the long-reigning failure Ethelred the Unready; and the Norman William the Conqueror, who ended Anglo-Saxon Britain with his invasion of 1066.
This is a book aimed at Britons, as there are things taken for granted that non-Brits may not understand. The biggest flaw is the total lack of maps. This book cries out for them, especially for those of us with a less than total understanding of English geography.
The only other weakness is that in an attempt to be relevant when the book was written in 1981, Wood often describes events in the past with modern counterparts. We get Vietnam references to guerilla warfare (and he probably would have used the term "ethnic cleansing" in some places had the book been written after the wars in the former Yugoslavia). Some of these references might be a bit dated, but the fact that most aren't is a sign that much of the brutality of history is still with us.
There is also a Postscript, written in connection with the 2006 paperback edition, that mentions a few modern archeological discoveries that basically just support the stories in the original edition.
And those stories are fascinating! Each chapter is necessarily short (and could each be a book in itself). But we are taken on an enthralling journey from the Celtic resistance to the Romans through the Anglo-Saxon and Viking invasions, to the arrival of the Normans. It should be an encouragement to read more.
But it desperately needs maps!
Brings Forth Form From the Dark.......2006-09-01
This is a well-written and concise account of England in the Dark Ages. Author Michael Wood seems especially qualified for this sort of subject since he is amazingly proficient in dealing with a time period that has conflicting and missing sources - as he was also with the Trojan War. While the history of the Dark Ages is obscure - in more ways than one - he manages a very clear, concise and accessible narrative. As he was previously only known to me as the host of historical TV shows, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of his writing. (When it comes to history, he is evidently the king of all media.) I particularly like Wood's diligence in trying to reveal history without a lot of personal opinions or filling in gaps with conjecture masquerading as fact.
In this fairly short book the casual historian will almost certainly acquire a significant amount of interesting new knowledge about Dark Age England. My favorite is the chapter on Althelstan (of whom I'd previously never even heard), an enlightened king who conquered the entire island of Britain - something even the Romans never accomplished! The amazing story of Alfred the Great, while less obscure, also makes great reading.
There is a surprising amount of relatively unknown and important history packed into this slim book. This is a period of time when reality was often hazy even for the contemporaries. The borders of now largely-forgotten kingdoms shifted and disappeared as people of different cultures, religions and languages clashed over and over. The results had a profound impact on our present day culture and language. (How different things would have turned out if Alfred had not, against all odds, refused to give up!) While many may know how England and the British Empire helped shape the modern world, this book tells you a lot about what shaped England.
My one criticism is that the title is misleading. In this book you won't find out much about the world in general, or even continental Europe, during the Dark Ages. It is almost entirely concerned with (what is now) England. But that was enough to make it a very interesting piece of work to me.
Meticulously Pieces Together A 1,000-Year Puzzle.......2005-03-28
This book was conceived as a companion volume to the author's 1981 BBC documentary series of the same name, and it stays current with a postscript penned in 2001. IN SEARCH OF THE DARK AGES tackles some of the same territory of at least two of Wood's subsequent books, DOMESDAY and IN SEARCH OF ENGLAND, though his objectives and lens are different each time.
Wood's Dark Age parameters are framed by the Roman triumph over the last, first century A.D. Celtic rebellion led by Boudica (that's right; "Boadicea" was a misreading of the calligraphy in the original source) and the Norman Conquest of 1066. In between, he selects a pageant of personages to elucidate succeeding generations and the overlay of first Roman, then Anglo Saxon, Viking and finally Norman cultures: King Arthur, the nameless Sutton Hoo man, Offa, Alfred the Great, Athelstan, Eric Bloodaxe, and Ethelred the Unready. The Dark Ages are quite the challenge in which to go looking for the truth, thickly crusted as they are with the opacity caused by too few extant primary sources and too many Medieval fictions, as well as so many change-ups in cultures, language and leadership. Wood does a quality job of reading the sources, critiquing the fictions and sorting out contemporary scholarship and archeological finds.
Wood writes in an astoundingly lucid voice that rings with wonder. The immediacy of his tone, though unsensational, does leave you feeling blood-soaked as you emerge from these violent times. Despite the ruinous invasions and battles, you can see a shift in values, the coloring of what would become the English language and the evolution of a nation. This is an excellent book for general readers wishing to shore up their knowledge of western civilization.
A great accessible introduction to this field.......2002-05-27
I loved the care this book took not to become too dryly academic, but at the same time to provide good, useful information. Interesting topics and figures in early English history such as Eric Bloodaxe, Stonehenge and Sutton Hoo are introduced in an engaging way, with many intersting illustrations and maps. This is the perfect book for someone looking to find out more about this subject, but not wanting to be put to sleep.
We can only hope that the television series upon which it is based will someday become available for purchase as well.
Excellent "easy" history.......2001-06-27
Wood is best known as a BBC "presenter" of the PBS variety, but he's also an Oxford-trained historian. His books (and television series) are solid history but still accessible. This book and his Domesday: A Search for the Roots of England are almost two halves of a whole, an investigation of what happened in England between the departure of the legions and the arrival of William's Normans, and why, and what the effects were on the further development of the "English" (. . . Celtic, Danish, Norwegian, Norman French . . .) people. Lots of maps and illustrations, lots of archaeological plats, and a nice turn of phrase in nearly every paragraph.
Average customer rating:
- a heavenly escape for the soul
- This book is inspiring! Recapture the romance of living!
- A must read!
|
Dancing in the Dark: Romance, Yearning, and the Search for the Sublime
Barbara Lazear Ascher
Manufacturer: Cliff Street Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 General
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Applied Psychology
| Psychology & Counseling
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Psychology & Counseling
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
Social Psychology & Interactions
| Psychology & Counseling
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0060174420 |
Book Description
"Romance is structured yearning. In the romantic moment, we gather and focus that yearning in order to connect with something outside ourselves, believing against all odds that such connection is possible, knowing paradoxically that romance is born in the space between our reach and our grasp."
So begins Barbara Lazear Ascher's Dancing in the Dark. Offering enchantment to a disenchanted age, this mesmerizing new book explores our instinctual, ageless romantic impulse and the essential role of romance in our lives, in nature, and in the arts.
Barbara Ascher's lyrical and provocative prose expands the idea of romance and reveals its powers to redeem passion in our everyday lives. Ascher seeks out the romantic and explores the connections among sex, religion, family, nature, travel, food, music, art, and architecture, offering unforgettable insights that engage the soul and mind.
In her quest for what is transcendent in life, she joins intrepid birders in Central Park, who brave winter cold for a glimpse of the long-eared owl--and for a connection between man and nature. She visits Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater house, and Le Cirque's kitchen to witness sensuous pastrymaking. She travels to great museums to view extraordinary paintings and to discuss romance with Sydney Pollack. She attends a Barbara Cook master class and buys a manual typewriter on which to write. Every page of this book draws us into our deepest humanity.
Dancing in the Dark elevates this vital sentiment to a passion-suffused life force, available to all, composed of hope, reverence for the unattainable, and the desire for more. Friendly, humorous, informative, Dancing in the Dark connects life to art, fact to fiction, and present to past.
Customer Reviews:
a heavenly escape for the soul.......1999-12-30
when i read ascher's lyrical, poetic and passionate prose, i can almost feel the words come alive as i run my fingers across the pages - as if to grasp them. these pages of prose are a divine haven from the often cold and unrelenting lives that we exist in when we can be much, much more if we desired to yearn and to search for it.
This book is inspiring! Recapture the romance of living!.......1999-07-24
Dancing in the Dark shows us how to live the inspired life, to embrace life and breathe every moment into and out of it. Whether it is something as simple as a walk in the park or as special as a visit to the Prado Museum, Barbara Lazear Ascher puts a spring back in our step and gives us that little push we so often need to get back on track and be thankful we're alive! Here's to life and to Barbara!
A must read!.......1999-05-20
This is one of those books where the blurb on the back is absolutely right. Pat Conroy said of this book, ..."You read it and wonder aloud why you have not asked more for yourself. You want to tear yourself away from your own sleepwalking life and shout, 'Now!' What a wonderful book!" Indeed.
Book Description
Here Mr. Hall interprets an extraordinary work by St. John of the Cross. Written over three hundred years ago, it deals with Christian symbolism on a mystical level. Its early insights are invaluable for modern man's continuing growth.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent investigation into the unknown.......2005-11-13
I found Krauss's writing about a very difficult and enigmatic subject remarkably accessible. What has to be grasped is that no one -- NO ONE -- knows to any degree of certainty what makes up dark matter, nor how many forms it might take. It is the job of particle physicists and astrophysicists to, yes, speculate about what it could be, come up with a model that just might work, and then try to find ways to quantify and prove that model. New particles are being discovered on a regular basis: just because the concept is beyond our realm of understanding doesn't mean it's "science fiction" or that these discoveries are deserving of scorn because they don't seem to affect our daily lives. Krauss delivers his information in an engaging way that doesn't pander to the lowest common denominator, nor does he shy away from challenging his reader. I found The Fifth Essence to be one of the best examples I've read of science writing for the general public. Cheers!
Still haven't found what I'm looking for.......2005-02-24
We are accustomed to having our questions answered. This book discusses a question without giving the answer. The subtitle is The Search For Dark Matter In The Universe. That's right. It's about the search. Reading this book is like spending a few weeks with a flashlight, poking around in the dark. When the last page is done, you still, as U2 sang, haven't found what you're looking for.
Before reading this one, I read a book that told me that the dark matter consisted of Jupiter-sized black holes in space, millions of them, formed in the first fraction of a second after the Big Bang.
This book mentions that possibility but doesn't buy it. The answer here is that the dark matter consists of sub-atomic particles speeding through space, flying through planets and stars without being stopped by them. They also fly right through our skin and bones, constantly. Do I have that right? Who the hell knows.
On the back cover, the author is described as a "superbly clear writer". I wouldn't go that far. Consider the source - another physicist. Clear to him. He knows this stuff already. Clear as mud to me. Well, some of it, anyway.
We now believe that from 90% to 99% of the stuff in the universe is invisible to us and undetectable by our technology. And we think that stuff is ... umm ... chocolate pudding. We're testing for it. Maybe that stuff is heaven. Or maybe the calculations are way off and there is no dark matter, and we shall soon prove that we don't exist.
I was surprised to see how the processes of physics and cosmology seem to work. We fantasize. We imagine. What if ... ummm ... what if there was a particle that was such and such a size and had such and such properties .... would that explain anything? Okay, let's say that it exists, let's call it a floooeyon. Now let's go search for it. This reads like sci fi.
Hey, Henry, I think what happens is that for every particle there is an anti-particle, and when they collide they destroy each other, and there are exactly the same number of particles as anti-particles, but then again there may be 1,000,000,001 particles to every 1,000,000,000 anti-particles, and they all destroyed each other, leaving 1 particle undestroyed, and that particle, multiplied a gazillion times, is what makes the universe.
What???????
No, for real. It is a ballooneon. Now if only I could measure the effect that one ballooneon has when it flies through the earth and bangs into a proton in a big vat of orange juice below the surface of the earth, we'd be all set.
One of the strongest impressions you take from this book is just how unimaginably huge the universe is. There are billions of galaxies. With that in mind, it seems that only an absolute fool would believe that this is the only inhabited planet. Instead of thinking that the UFO-believers are loonies, it seems that the UFO-skeptics are the loonies. We are less than a grain of sand in the universe. Of course there are others out there. Otherwise, what are all those billions of galaxies out there for?
Shedding Light on Dark Matter.......1997-11-04
In The Fifth Essence, Lawrence Krauss provides a thorough retelling of the theories relating to dark matter in the Universe. Each example is explained with carefully chosen analogies that are comprehensible to the average academic. While complex and somewhat technical, this collection is well worth the attention of the passionate amateur or professional.
Book Description
As HIV continues its death march around the globe, now infecting 40 million people, an AIDS vaccine still remains an elusive goal. When scientists first proved in 1984 that HIV causes AIDS, a vaccine race quickly spun into action with high hopes that the world would soon have a means to stop this modern plague. But today the race to develop an AIDS vaccine more closely resembles a crawl. Jon Cohen, a leading AIDS reporter, tells how the forces inside and outside the world of science have hindered the AIDS vaccine search. He reveals the complicated obstacles that stymie researchers, the uncertain marketplace that confronts pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, the haphazard political response, and the ethical dilemmas that give pause to everyone involved. He goes behind the scenes at academic labs, companies, government agencies, scientific meetings, and investment houses to document how promising leads go nowhere as scientists jump from one fashionable idea to the next. Beyond a critique of the current methods and strategies, this book also offers specific recommendations for accelerating AIDS vaccine research.
Customer Reviews:
It wasn't supposed to be this hard........2006-08-04
Jon Cohen tells the microbiological detective story in which some of the best brains in science have been pitted against the most extraordinary bug the world has ever seen. In 1984 it was discovered that HIV was the cause of AIDS. Straight away, there were confident predictions that there would be a vaccine ready for testing in just two years. Back then, just 1,292 deaths from AIDS had been reported. Now the figure is 25 million dead. By 2010 it is predicted there will be 85 million infections and 70 million deaths. And after 20 years there is still no sign of a vaccine. Despite work of dazzling complexity, the ambition of so many brilliant scientists has been constantly thwarted. Just as a vaccine seems to be working, the AIDS virus alters itself, and ten to fifteen years of work, and millions of dollars, go down the drain. These bitter disappointments are only compounded by the desperate human urgency of the work. The virus is impervious to almost everything you throw at it, says Cohen. Shots in the Dark: The Wayward Search for an AIDS Vaccine, is a story where the clock doesn't stop ticking.
Impressive.......2005-09-10
The book is nothing short of a fantastic account of the events which have shaped policy and prejudice of the AIDS anatomy and policy. At first the chapter all about Saul was wierd. Wondering where is the author leading me, and the chapter on the companies in it for PURE profit, and not creating ANYTHING worth publising. And of course you can't leave out the workings of a beaurocratic government (HA)! I had to drop the book after about 3/4 through it just because it started to write/read like a history book - which is why it gets four stars instead of five. As far as content and points of view (unbiased) it was GREAT and would recommend to anyone interested in POLICY of governments, companies, public view, and history of expirments shaping the AIDS vaccine (or should I say cure since there will never be a true "vaccine").
Now for the bad news.......2005-07-09
Reviewers of Jon Cohen's Shots in the Dark have uniformly praised his insight and investigation into the world of HIV/AIDS research. His careful accounting has exposed weaknesses of the American national biomedical research endeavor led by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Few if any reviewers have commented on the veracity of his conclusion. HIV/AIDS research is a political hot potato.
But one thing that should be obvious to most readers is that two decades of trying to model HIV with a different disease in a species not normally infected with the experimental disease, has been an abject, costly, and misleading failure. Cohen's response is a strident call for more, much much more, of the same.
Human immunodeficiency virus is a retrovirus that causes disease only in humans. It is a species-specific disease. Chimpanzees infected with HIV display very mild transient symptoms. Nothing regarding HIV infection in humans or in the treatment of AIDS has been a result of the use of chimpanzees. This has been acknowledged by leading primate researchers such as Dr. Thomas Insel, past director of the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University and now director of the National Institute of Mental Health.
Sooty mangabeys, an African monkey, are natural carriers of a disease called simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV). In spite of the similar name, HIV and SIV are caused by different viruses. When macaques, an Asian genus of monkey, are infected with a serially-passaged SIV, they become terminally ill. They develop chronic nosebleeds, diarrhea, and anorexia as they progress to morbidity.
This fact was discovered when the poor husbandry methods of the nation's NIH monkey labs inadvertently allowed the wide-spread infection of macaques with SIV. The disease was identified when primate researchers read about the symptoms of HIV. Always on the lookout for a new moneymaking animal model, the primate research community quickly claimed that the newly discovered disease would be a productive model of HIV.
Many hundreds of millions of dollars later, they are still asking the American taxpayer to be patient and to give them more money to kill many more monkeys.
In light of the fact that everything known about AIDS and how to treat the disease has been a direct result of human cell studies, clinical studies, and epidemiological research, it is difficult to understand why Cohen still stands with the monkey researchers and urges more money be shoveled into this black hole of proven failure. The only answer I can imagine is that he is just enamored with anything that looks like science.
Readers unfamiliar with the history of the failure of the monkey and chimpanzee models are likely to come away from Shots in the Dark with a very wrong-headed idea of how we ought to be spending our finite resources to stop this pandemic. To this extent, the book is dangerous and likely to have negative consequences if decision makers take Cohen's recommendations to heart.
In spite of this, as a historical accounting, I found the book to worthwhile.
An excellent, readable overview of vaccine research.......2002-12-19
Jon Cohen is probably the most knowledgable journalist on the topic of HIV vaccines and has been following developments in this area for over a decade. He's had unparalleled access to people working in the field and it shows in this well organized history of the search for an HIV vaccine. I used to work in this area of research and, although there are issues where I have quibbled with the author, I can think of no better introduction to the field and the key issues that have shaped it. Cohen has been uniquely able to maintain the trust and respect of key people working in the field, while also raising important social and scientific issues. The result is a thoughtful, relatively thorough chronology that is also readable and concise. At a more personal level, the book brought back many forgotten controversies and issues that formed the background for almost a decade of my own work. The writing is that vivid, while also maintaining a high standard of scientific journalism.
They themselves are the experiment.......2001-07-10
Buy this book, read it, and pass it on to a friend. In short, make it infections, as it is one of the best hopes for `enlightened' men to capture the future.
This is a massive journalistic endeavor for a single man to mount, set against the hurdles of the decidedly clubby world of big-money medicine and ten-plus years of the Byzantine complexities of many different scientific disciplines, not one. Its factual, story-to-tell approach, is a breath of fresh air in a miasma of empty government panel reports, obtuse scientific ramblings, sensationalist hardcopy, and necessarily overstated activist rancor. For those who take time with it, it works its way, not "into your face", but slowly into your heart.
For the less passionate, however, it is not clear, that this book, stoutly rendered by Cohen and W.W.Norton, carries its burden of proof, in all cases. Where are the numbers? We read that vaccine research persistently remained at 10% of the overall NAIAD budget, but, W.W., a data table would have been nice. The same with the grant evaluation-success rates and total project funding(s), and other small things here and there. But these points hardly sacrifice the whole. The broader picture and point to be made is overwhelmingly clear: Physician, help thyself! Alternatively, one might call it, "When bad things happen to really, really smart people."
This realization builds from page to page with almost every conflict and with almost every story of pursuit recounted. **The "endless frontier" of medicine-man-directed-science has not been expansive enough to include the basic, fundamental lessons of process science, risk bearing and decision making under uncertainty, strategic planning, and public relations.** It is no accident that Jonas Salk's last recounted wish is for "better ways", and the attentive reader will find similar hints or cries for help from other scientists as well.
Since 1981, it is a time for *war*, man against microbe. These scientists seem to miss the lessons of the *harsh*, *daily* reality that THEY AND THEIR ETHOS *ARE* THE EXPERIMENT!
This is true, notwithstanding, of course, of the great "Nobel prize experiment", that perniciously hangs like a collaboration-distracting "mirror, mirror" amid the lab-rats. At other times, the profession also seems oddly self-aware, as the paucity of those interested in putting themselves in harm's way of such a dashing "experiment" is laid bare, for example, while the directorship for the new NIH Vaccine Center goes unwanted.
Now, in 2001, the field seems blood red and who will say which fault belongs to whom? Who could fault the NIH, who, after all, have only the power to subsidize? Who could fault the politicians, who thought the scientists had it "under control (at least contained, ahem!) and adequately funded"? Who could continue to fault the system, when incremental changes have been made? Finally, what Prince will come at the end to say, "And I, for winking at your discords too, have lost a brace of kinsman?"
Yet the notion that Cohen suggests, that, after twenty years, "the world is watching", does nothing but turn up the heat on a pot with the same ingredients. One cannot look into Dr. Fauci's or Dr. Baltimore's eyes, for instance, and think that these researchers, these captains, are utterly bankrupt, immoral egoists or that they have deaf ears, deaf ears to the 60 million that may die one of the most miserable deaths possible, surrender (insofar as the human mind could even comprehend the magnitude of such a loss).
To be fair - and hopeful -, the medical profession, has let itself open to study and critique, far, far more than others. Yet, more chanticleer cries will repeat the past, for what may be needed now are truly better ways, diversity of thought, competence in management, and sufficiency in funding - the hard work, not the low-hanging fruit; settling in for the long-run; in short, the next 20 years.
The Buddhists believe that a single man can change the world. This reviewer hopes that others who read this book also have vigor enough to take a trumpet to Washington, not to wake anyone up, but like Joseph on the way to Jericho, truly a March of D-times.
Books:
- Dark Hollow
- Dead Certain
- Dead Until Dark (Southern Vampire Mysteries, Book 1)
- Dead Wrong: A Novel of Suspense (Joanna Brady Mysteries)
- Death in Winter (Star Trek: the Next Generation)
- Dirty Dealing: Drug Smuggling on the Mexican Border & the Assassination of a Federal Judge : An American Parable
- Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
- Edge of Evil
- Fade Away (Myron Bolitar Mysteries)
- Fear Nothing
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- The Destruction of the European Jews
- PC Chop Shop: Tricked Out Guide to PC Modding
- French Quarter Manual: An Architectural Guide to New Orleans Vieux Carre
- Laboratory Manual for the Examination of Water, Waste Water and Soil, 3rd Edition
- History: Fiction or Science
- Land Development Handbook
- North By Northanger, or The Shades of Pemberley: A Mr. & Mrs. Darcy Mystery
- The History of Castles: Fortifications Around the World
- Good Deeds, Good Design: Community Service through Architecture
- Whose Body
In Search of Dark Matter (Springer Praxis Books / Space Exploration)
The Trouble With Physics: The Rise of String Theory, The Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next
Many Worlds in One: The Search for Other Universes
Dark Side of the Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Fate of the Cosmos
Endless Universe: Beyond the Big Bang
