Book Reviews Archives
Recommended Reading: Henry Petroski
While the people of Minnesota are still pulling bodies from the wreckage of the I-35 bridge, I feel its inappropriate to comment much about the incident, and I am particularly not interested in assigning blame at this time. There will be plenty of time for that later, for now my advice is to stay out of the way, help who you can and for Gods sake don't dwell on it.
For those of you who can't understand how such a thing could possibly happen, I can recommend some reading on the subject of failure and its role in design.
Click image to peek inside...
Henry Petroski - To Engineer Is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design
The book recounts several large scale engineering failures and how many of them were caused by simple, small never before seen and often overlooked errors. I don't know what caused this event and I don't think anyone does, but I suspect that we may be looking at something that will eventually end up in the second edition of Mr. Petroskis book.
I highly recommend any of Mr. Petroskis books. They all cause a great deal of thinking after they have been read.
( Full Disclosure: I am a software engineer by trade, but this book has been in my recommended reading list for years. The lessons learned in this book apply to my industry as well as those who make cars,airplanes and yes, bridges.)
Posted @ August 03, 2007 12:15 AM | Book Reviews | Comments (2)
Your Daily Dose Of The Dreamliner
From Boeing.com:
Snip...
EVERETT, Wash., May 15, 2007 -- The gigantic composite wings for the all-new Boeing 787 Dreamliner were delivered to Everett at 4:10 a.m. PDT today.
Manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries at its facility in Nagoya, Japan, each wing is 98 feet long. Standing on edge in custom-made tooling, the wings were delivered together to Boeing via the Dreamlifter, a specially modified 747-400 used to transport 787 major assemblies. The 787 is the first commercial aircraft to use composite materials as its primary structure. It is also the first Boeing aircraft featuring an all-composite wing.
"A composite wing of this size has never been built before," said Scott Strode, 787 vice president of Airplane Definition and Production. "This is a tribute to our fantastic team. We believe the Dreamliner sets a new standard for how commercial airplanes will be made in the future."
The wings were immediately delivered to the 787 final assembly factory. Additional work -- including attaching the wingtip and movable surfaces -- will be completed by Boeing. The total wingspan of a 787 is 197 feet.
The 787 Dreamliner is the fastest-selling airplane in aviation history, with firm orders for 567 airplanes from 44 airlines.
End snip...
What you are looking at in this picture is the single biggest innovation in aviation since the jet engine. That odd shaped structure coming out of the front of the 747 Transport is the 787 main wing spar. A spar thats made of composite material for a large commercial jet. Think of this as the I-Beam of the aircraft or the central weight and stress bearing structure for the entire aircraft.
What happens when the main wing spar fails in mid flight?
Well, this happens -
This is a Lockheed C-130 fire bomber. The reason it doesnt look much like an aircraft in the picture is just a second before this picture was taken, the main wing spar snapped at the fuselage and broke the wing in two. At that point, It ceased to be an aircraft.
The lesson here is that main wing spars are important and crucial in the design of aircraft. If you're a company betting on composites in the creation of that wing spar then its a 'bet the company' kind of bet. Win the bet, your company rules the halls of aviation for another generation. Lose the bet, and people die.
That's right folks, those metal wings you see today flexing out your seat window when you fly your friendly neighborhood airline are about to be made of good old fashioned - plastics.
More correctly, they are to be made of 'composite materials', and they are also to be 'Made In Japan' by a subcontrator who got the job because they were the lowest bidder in the competition for the work.
Relax. It will be a great aircraft. In 10 years, everyone will insist on composite materials over metals.
I sure hope it all fits together and that the seams dont show when all the parts are glued together. I hope this is aircraft a "Revell kit", and not a "Monogram kit"(an inside joke for all the airplane model kit builders out there, and you know who you are...).
Posted @ May 15, 2007 10:56 PM | Book Reviews | Comments (1)
Gorgon, Harpy and Medusa - Call your office!
Roseanne Barr has emerged as the top contender to replace Rosie O'Donnell next year on "The View," sources say.
And when she opens her mouth, she makes a sound that only dogs can hear and can stun small animals into a coma at 500 yards. That's real talent baby...
A rep for Barr says she has not been approached.
And we believe every single thing we read in the papers, really we do...
"It's almost like that rumor that spread last month about how she was going to be on 'Desperate Housewives,' " said Barr's spokesperson.
This ladies and gentleman is known in the business as a "Hint".
"She's a piece of work, she's a character, she says what's on her mind and she's funny," said a source with knowledge of ABC's sudden and desperate search to find a new co-host to replace O'Donnell who quit the show last week.
Yes, the eternal question for producers everywhere, how to fill a seat that Rosie once sat in.
"They're missing strong personalities on that show, and that's what they're going to need if they want to keep it going," an ABC staffer close to the situation told the Post.
Starring Joy Behar as "the wallflower".
During an appearance on "Larry King" last week, Roseanne danced around the question of joining the "The View."
Larry King AND Roseanne,live and taking your calls for first half hour, in the second half of the hour, Henry Kissinger and Topo Gigo... Who says standards for television have fallen?
"I'm not looking for the job," she said at one point - and joking at another, "Well, I want $10 million, like Rosie."
But she never said she wouldn't take it if offered.
And Tom Arnold is laughing all the way to the bank.
Since last week's announcement when Rosie said she planned to leave the show in June, several names have surfaced as possible replacements.
Yes, Hello CAA? Can you tell us who is representing "the Medusa"?
Among them are Joan Rivers(What, did she lose her gig as Paris Hiltons little dog?), Whoopi Goldberg(kinda early in the morning for old Whoop, dontcha think?), Kathie Lee Gifford(eh, what? Does the world really need more stories of Cody?) and Connie Chung(I hear a barrel being scraped). Out of all of them, Roseanne seems to be the best fit.
That is the first time in history that the words "best fit" and Roseanne have appeared in the same sentence at the same time.
"It's going to be hard for them to follow Rosie," says an industry insider. "Roseanne could be the only one capable of pulling it off."
Its easy to follow Rosie, just follow the sound of glass breaking and the line of debris in her wake.
Industry insiders have also suggested Bette Midler and D-lister, Kathy Griffin.
Oh those talent agents, they are cut ups arent they?
The job is particularly hard to fill for more reasons than just the difficulty of finding a new, strong personality.
For starters, most women have better things to do with their time than this.
The open chair is the No. 1 seat on the show, requiring a star who can, in effect, be the show's quarterback - moving the discussion along, introducing guests and other duties that a TV neophyte might not be able to pull off believably.
O'Donnell said Wednesday that she's leaving "The View" after one year because she and ABC could not agree on a new deal.
Insiders have said she wanted more control over the show and decided to quit when that was denied.
O'Donnell had replaced former "View" co-host Meredith Vieira. Starr Jones, who also left the show last year, has yet to be replaced.
Say guys, I've got a real simple solution to your problem...
Posted @ April 30, 2007 03:48 PM | Book Reviews | Comments (0)
Liveblogging "State Of War" : Breaking for lunch
I'm breaking for lunch.
As expected, Ive managed to just about finish the first read today. It is somewhat difficult to read because the author is very disjointed with his arguments. Half the time he puts forth arguments about why the CIA is A) useless b) out of control since the end of the cold war c) staffed with lifetime appointees, many of which came on board during the Clinton administration which is quickly followed by a sentence that says something like " many experts in the area of 'fill-in-the-blank ' agree that Bush has clear fumbled and "dropped the ball". You get the idea. No source is stated, no footnotes to documentation just "Many sources agree" and youre supposed to trust him with that even though he just spent a page and a half giving you the direct opposite impression. Its enough to give you literary whiplash...
He constantly moves the goalpost on what is good and bad behavior depending on whos ox is being gored( oh yeah, never seen that before have we...). You get the idea from the back cover which says:
"In the 1960 and 70's it was abuse of power in domestic politics"
( subtext - You remember, that evil Nixon fellah.)
"In the 1980s it was lawbreaking in covert foreign affairs"
( subtext - You remember, that even more evil Reagan fellah)
"Now we are at war and domestic spying and covert lawbreaking are just the tip of the iceberg".
(subtext - Black helicopters - Liberal concetration camps, evil Bush Mchitler is outside your door right now listening to your every move. He knows when you are sleeping, He knows when youre awake..)
It's a good thing nothing happened in the 1990s or his whole back jacket graphics plan wouldv'e been totally shot!
My first thought after finishing the first read is that you could just as easily edit the material in this book to be very Pro-Bush if you were so inclined. I found myself at several points wondering if the author really wanted to say something like that but was goaded into being "Bush negative" by his editorial board. You could take many of his arguments against Bush and give his own supporting evidence as reasons why the President was doing a great job if you remove the overused and unsupported phrase " Many experts agree that Bush is..." from the book.
Anyway, let me eat, enjoy the sunshine, take the dog on a hike and think about it for a bit and then I'll post some of the juicier bits afterwards and summarize the whole thing.
If this really is the very best the New York Times can do...
Posted @ January 08, 2006 02:04 PM | Book Reviews | Comments (0)
James R. Risen State of War: Detailed Review
As a service to my readers, I have now aquired a copy of the latest book of literary controversy: James R. Risens "State of War" The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration. I will give a detailed analysis of each chapter and provide a "fisking" of those things I find in the book that are of note. I do this to help those of you who wish to know whats actually in the book, but don't necessarily wish to give support to someone who may not be on the same side of the war as the rest of us.
Yes, I did actually buy the book. While I may or may not agree with the man, he did write it and he deserves fair compensation for the effort. What kind of a capitalist would I be if I didn't give him at least that? If its good, I'll say so, if its bad or wrong or wrong headed, I'll say that too.
At first glance, its a small book of about 200 pages. I will be done with the first read of this by tommorow.
UPDATE: This going to be a long bumpy ride. Page 1 of the prologue relates a story of President Bush angrily hanging up on his father in 2003. The author then goes into some detail on what must have been the nature of the call( George HW Bush angry that the "neo-cons" like Donald Rumsfeld and how they were taking over from moderates like Colin Powell ). The author then admits that the call was only heard by two men who we are assumed to be President Bush and his father.
So, assuming that President Bush or his father did not serve as the anonymous sources then who was it that told James Risen what the call was about? Oh I know! it was that good and noble conservative, Colin Powell. But he wasnt there either...Damn!
I'm now up to chapter two but so far its a condensed cream of "East Coast Intellectual Bush Hatred" laid lightly across a bed of foreign service officer dissention, followed by a green-with-envy salad covered in a light vinagarette of Georgetown party circuit smarm. I must remember to stock up on the Alka Seltzer if I am to make it through this.
Most of what I've read so far folows a pattern of " Bush is a bumbling blunderer" quickly followed by example after example of how the CIA or other parties never had Bush involved in the bad decisions in the first place. Its hard to tell at this point if the author wishes to give the President the biggest "get out of jail free" card in history or if he wants the President impeached. My guess is the latter rather than the former, but every time he points out that the CIA kept information to itself without telling the President, I have to wonder.
UPDATE II: Something was bothering me about the book last night and about 3:00 am it hit me. There are no footnotes. There is page after page of incidents, but no documentation to allow the reader to follow up. For example, on page 5 the author goes into some discussion of how John Deutch faired in his days at the CIA.
Quote:
His decision to fire senior officers over a scandal in Guatemala may have been sound management practice, but it led to an open rebellion with the Directorate of Operations, from which he never fully recovered.
What "Scandal in Guatemala" is he talking about? I know we live in the google age, but it would be nice to specify some supporting documentation.
Posted @ January 07, 2006 08:33 PM | Book Reviews | Comments (3)
Book Review: Shattered Sword – The Untold Story of the Battle Of Midway
Most military historians rate the Battle of Midway as one of the true turning points in history, a single battle where history could have changed direction based on the outcome of the battle. The Battle of Midway is the first true battle of this new type of war, The Carrier Air War. While other battles had occurred prior to midway that involved Aircraft Carriers and Naval Aviation, no battle had been seen to be so decisive in its deployment of the new technology to result in the changing of Naval strategy. Prior to Midway, the debate between the worlds Navy’s broke into two camps, the “Gun Clubs” maintained by the Battleship Admirals and “Airedales” championed by those farsighted commanders who saw the future of Naval Aviation. After Midway, there was no more debate, it was clear to everyone that any Navy or Fleet operation that did not have an effective Carrier Air Group tightly integrated into its day to day operations was doomed from the start. The sinking of the Bismarck, The raid on Taranto, The sinking of the HMS Prince of Wales and the HMS Repulse as well as the Battle of the Coral Sea all showed the potential of Naval Aviation, but the battle of Midway showed how utterly essential it was to combat operations. While the authors of this fine book make the case that the Battle of Midway was poorly planned and poorly executed by the Japanese and totally misunderstood by both sides, the role the Battle of Midway and the analysis of the battle in establishing the need for the dominance of Naval Aviation cannot be misunderstood.
Before you read “Shattered Sword”, its best that you forget everything that you have been taught or had been lead to believe about the Battle of Midway. Even for those who consider themselves to be well versed on the subject of pre war Japanese politics from the role of Admiral Yamamato in IJN success and the true role of the American code breakers, this book is likely to cause you to reexamine many of the things you only “thought you knew”.
This book spends a great deal of time explaining how the Japanese came to the decision to attack Midway, and the politics behind the decision. In addition, the authors explain in great detail how Japanese Carriers operated within their fleet, and how the ships were manufactured to meet that task. Many authors of books on the same subject have always assumed that Japanese Carrier Operations Doctrine was similar to American Carrier Operations Doctrine, but this book makes clear the deep flaws in that analysis and the conclusions drawn from it as a result. The vast majority of the books is spent in the actions prior to the battle, but the analysis of the battle itself makes clear just how near the Americans came to losing this crucial battle in the history of the western world.
Anyone that is interested in World History and Military Strategy wall find this book a very good read. The material is well researched, with good footnotes and the appendices are almost as good as the book itself.
Posted @ December 27, 2005 02:44 PM | Book Reviews | Comments (0)
Book Review: The Last Sentry
The Last Sentry: by Gregory D. Young, Nate Braden
Stories abound in our popular culture with tales of well meaning "rebels" attempting to overthrow the system. Its a common theme in American culture, to the point that historical stories like the "mutiny on the bounty" have become twisted from a story of a seasoned and experienced sea captain and a mutinous criminal crew to one of a bloated incompetent crony being rightfully put in his place by the virtuous rebellious crew. The truth of course lies somewhere in between. My take on the bounty disaster? Bligh was the world’s greatest second officer and a truly great seaman and a damn good navigator, but he was also someone who should never have been given his own command because he suffered from what can only be called a serious personality disorder. It’s the “peter principle” in action; he simply rose to his own level of in competency.
But the question remains, "what could motivate a man to want to mutiny, knowing full well that the odds of success are next to zero and the cost of trying is quite likely to be, shall we say – terminal?"
The Last Sentry is a textbook study of a mutiny, not in a western country, but a mutiny within the Soviet Union. While the book does a good job of explaining the conditions of conscription within the Soviet military, it does a better job of showing the world from the perspective of the sailors and their families. What is most interesting in this particular story is that the mutineer is not a rough and tumble rebel straight out of Hollywood trying to make his form of justice out of the oppression of the people in power but rather, this story is that of a “true believer” who believes that those in power haven’t gone far enough!
There’s a great deal to take in with this book and a good deal to learn from it as well. There are those in the west who still believe that the harshness of the non-democratic states will produce a stronger military that those produced in democracies, but this book shows that its possible even in the harshest governments that things like a major mutiny is not only possible, but very probable. If your governments “true believers” start to turn against you…
Posted @ October 30, 2005 06:04 PM | Book Reviews | Comments (0)
Book Review: Curse of the Narrows
Curse Of The Narrows: Laura M. Macdonald
In one of earliest forays onto the blogosphere, I had an email exchange with Stephen Den Beste on the subject of Al Quedas actual capabilities to do damage to the United States. My argument was essentially that Al Queda didn’t need exotic weapons and delivery systems to do significant damage. it just needed the desire to do it and that Mohammad Attas operation was proof of that. One scenario I had proposed was the use of a container ship in harbor filled with explosives and radioactive waste**, which could be gathered from common variety smoke detectors and other off the shelf sources. The model I used was the Mount Blanc Explosion in Halifax Harbour Nova Scotia in 1917. For those of you not familiar with the Mount Blanc, it was a cargo ship that was filled with ammunition and explosives that violently exploded after a collision with another ship in Halifax harbor. The effect of the explosion was staggering. Manhattan project scientists, to estimate the possible effects of the Atomic bomb used the explosion of the Mount Blanc as a model for the damage that might be caused by an atomic bomb. This explosion devastated the towns of Halifax and Dartmouth and was so strong that it generated a Tsunami wave that engulfed areas of the town that had just been leveled by the explosion.
And it was all accomplished with nothing more sophisticated than common turn of the century explosives and a simple maritime accident.
This book is very well written and provides a great deal of insight into the people and conditions prevalent in Nova Scotia at the turn of the century. It is sad that due to wartime censorship that this story is not better know to most people except to history buffs like myself. Remember, that a weapon of mass destruction doesn’t have to be exotic for it to cause “mass destruction”, in the case of the Mount Blanc it was an accident, but the destruction would have been the same had it been done on purpose.
For those of you who are curious how the world survived disasters before the existence of FEMA, this book provides insight as to how the world responded to the needs of the people of Halifax and Dartmouth without the federal governments help.
note: ** - If the damage of ship full of explosives is so damaging, why pack it with small amounts of low level radioactive waste? the purpose of terrorism is fear. The explosion of a large containership filled to the brim with explosives is large enough to render large areas of a harbor like Long Beach or Seattle unusable, but the fear that would be caused by the immediate detection of low level radioactive material would hold off rescue reconstruction staff for the critical 72 hours after the attack. Yeah, I have thought about it, and it does worry me. So does the fact that the US Navy Seal Beach Munitions base is so close to the harbor that sits at the bottom of a valley that contains 33 milllion people.
Posted @ October 22, 2005 11:08 AM | Book Reviews | Comments (1)
Book Review: Red Star Rogue
What were you doing on March 7th 1968? Was it a nice day? Did you sleep soundly? According to author Kenneth Sewell, on that day, the Soviet Ballistic Missile Submarine K-129 was in the process of launching a nuclear missile at Pearl Harbor from the North Pacific when an accident occurred that caused the loss of the sub. How different history might have been had they succeeded in their mission. How might that date ring in our minds today if they had been successful?
Red Star Rogue is another book that gives details behind the Soviet Subs mission and the CIA mission to retrieve the Submarine after it failed. Although I have read several other books on the subject such as The Jennifer Project 
The actual history of the Cold War is only now coming into general knowledge. I have always been fascinated by the mission of the spy ship ‘Glomar Explorer’, which until recently was only spoken of in whispers. Until recently, I watched the ship sit at anchor in Suisun Bay as I came and went to work in the Bay Area. I always wondered how many people driving by on the freeway knew the role that the nondescript, grey industrial ship sitting just below the bridge had in their lives and how one day in the 1970’s it retrieved from the floor of the Pacific Ocean one of the biggest secrets in the Cold War, a Soviet Submarine.
I’ve really enjoyed reading this book and I find it a good fit with the others in the K-129/ Glomar Explorer saga. I find the details behind the lives and the mission of the Soviet crew to be interesting and informative. Of all the books on this subject, this is the only one to go into that area of knowledge. The rest of the books I have read so far tend to concentrate on John Craven or the USS Halibut.
Did a Soviet Sub actually attempt to destroy Pearl Harbor in 1968? Read it; then decide for yourself. No matter what you may decide after reading it, we haven’t heard the last of this story, so stay tuned.
( What was I doing on March 7th 1968? I was 7 years old, lived on Orange Ave. in Paramount California in an apartment building behind a drive-in dairy. I remember falling asleep in school while watching a filmstrip and getting into big trouble over it and I have a vague memory of Robert Kennedy being killed in Los Angeles, and I remember burning the hell out of myself with the cigarette lighter in my parents Renault Dauphine, but very little else about that time sticks in my head.)
Posted @ October 14, 2005 11:01 PM | Book Reviews | Comments (0)
Michael Crichton can’t say that! (Can he?)
A review of ‘State of Fear’
Somewhere in a bar in West Hollywood sits a “Big Time Media Agent” drunkenly explaining to his bartender how screwed he is. It seems that he’s Michael Crichton’s Agent, and he didn’t vet his clients most recent book before publishing, assuming as any of us would, that its automatically “Hollywood gold” because of course, “Michael Crichton wrote it”.
Then someone drops the bomb and tells him the book has two evil protagonists First, an Environmentalist Lawyer and second and far worse, A bloviating actor who “plays the president on a weekly TV show” and drives with great pride, an electric car! Worse still, most of what is made out as laughable by the author is the idiocy that makes up the sanctimonious liberal ‘for a cause’ culture that makes up much of the free time of the Hollywood elite.
Lawyers always suffer at the hands of Michael Crichton, if you’ll remember the scene in Jurassic Park where “The Lawyer” while sitting in a toilet, is eaten by a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
I remember the scene because the audience I was with, clapped.
You can make a movie or have a TV show about lawyers, it happens all the time. You can generate thousands of miles of footage about the evil “military industrial complex”, you can have all priests portrayed as pederasts, all cops as crooks and all ex-military types are Nutcase-Rambo-Time-Bombs, but you cannot under any circumstances make fun of “Hollywood Actors” as they go about making the world safe for us common people to live in.
I applaud Michael Crichton for writing a book that dares Hollywood to make it into a movie. However, if there’s a buck in it, they will try, only they will do to him what they did to Tom Clancy on “Sum of All Fears” where they changed the evil characters into safe to hate “Neo-Nazi’s” from the politically incorrect ‘Palestinian Terrorists’. Clearly the potential loss of market share in the middle-east vs. the potential loss of market in Hayden Lake Idaho had something to do with this decision.
This book is guaranteed to really piss some people off. If you are someone who takes the doctrine of environmentalism seriously, you might try reading something less inflammatory, like Ann Coulter instead. There is simply nothing for you in this book as there is nothing in the Da Vinci Code for the serious Catholic.
This is a book of heresy to the followers of the holy church of “mother earth” and my Birkenstock brothers are likely to take after Mr. Crichton with a pitchfork the way they did to Bjorn Lomborg.
Here’s the story in short summary:
A wealthy benefactor is about to make a large grant to an environmental advocacy group. They are working on a lawsuit for the poor put upon people of a south pacific atoll. The problem? Global Warming, and we all know who caused that! That’s right the good ole USA.
While looking for information on the case, the advocacy group is also doing what it can to actually cause targeted environmental disasters. One disaster prophetically told is that of a Tsunami generated in the South Pacific, aimed at the shores of California.
The story line gives Mr. Crichton a chance via his story proxy to tear into the absolute crap that passes for scientific discourse in the minds of those who believe in “global warming”. As such, I enjoyed the hell out of the book. You will find it interesting to read, just to check out the footnotes and detailed information that he practically begs you to go look up. I actually think that he should re-title the book “ Go look it up, Dipwad!” as that is really the point of much of the story. You are really missing half the story if you simply read what is written, go into the footnotes and you can find a treasure trove of facts and figures that will really make you the "man to be avoided" at the next NRDC fundraiser.
I laughed out loud at several points in the book and some of the items in it are eminently quotable. If you want to skim while in the bookstore, go directly to Appendix I in the back of the book. I think it should be moved to the preface of the story, it's that good.
I will only quote once and it’s a quote that he lifts from someone else.
“When the search for truth is confused with political advocacy, the pursuit for knowledge becomes a quest for power”
This is the core of the message behind the book. These are dangerous times that we live in, not because of the way we’ve treated the environment but because of the incessant need to “do something” and he makes clear the very real risks for following some of the idiocy that is presented to the public as “ caring concern for the environment”.
As someone who has had long friendships end because of my stand on “global warming” I can say that the book was a hit for me in a very big way. The book also brought out a new concept that I had not considered before. Much as been made of the “Military Industrial Complex” in our culture, but Mr. Crichton brings out a new idea, the “Political-Legal-Media Complex” where certain agencies are interested in hyping a “State of Fear”. I found this idea in the book to be the most interesting thing about it, as today we saw the release of the Rathergate report where two of the three legs of the PLM milk stool has taken a pretty bad beating.
There are many, many people who will find this book offensive, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Posted @ January 10, 2005 11:45 PM | Book Reviews | Comments (0)
Mr. Hand Goes to Borders Books
I think we all know how I feel about Borders Books and the staff that inhabit those establishments. But when I saw this at Michelle Malkin
All I could think of was this
Posted @ September 15, 2004 09:54 AM | Book Reviews | Comments (0)
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