1 comments about Rachel Carson: A Biography (Greenwood Biographies).

1. Most readers will know of "Silent Spring", however, this biography from the Greenwood series, is an apt and well formulated summary of the epitomy of the cirumstances that created Rachel Carson's legacy.
   It is a quick read that provides cursory insight. My only criticism is that the intensity that is the persona of Rachel Carson comes off somewhat languid and apolitical, although this is understandable in the intent of composing a brief biography. Highly recommended to accompany any high school student's project on the history of environmentalism, or on the naturalist movement.

5 comments about The Crocodile Hunter: The Incredible Life and Adventures of Steve and Terri Irwin.

1. "Hold onto their heads while I get their jaws apart." Steve Irwin grew up with his parents and sisters in Australia. His parents started the Beerwah Reptile Park, which later grew into Australia Zoo. Ever since he was a young boy, Steve has helped his dad capture and relocate crocodiles. In September of 1991, Terri and a friend went to Australia for vacation. Terri was introduced to Steve and four months later they were engaged. Immediately after their wedding in June in Terri's hometown in Oregon, they went back to Australia to begin filming the hit TV series "The Crocodile Hunter." They had many adventures all over the world and were running the zoo. On July 24, 1998 their daughter Bindi Sue Irwin was born. They continue to help injured and orphaned animals and teach people to conserve wild life. I really enjoyed reading this book.
   
   I liked that the book told of some of their adventures. One of the trips they went on was to drive along the longest manmade structure, Australia's Dingo Fence. Another was when they had to free climb to a lower edge of a cliff and Terri nearly fell. One of their adventures with a crocodile was when they were trying to move Charlie from a cement enclosure to the zoo.
   
   I also liked that they put animal facts and survival tips in the book without being a distraction. They said that the perentie was the largest lizard in Australia. They also said that ninety percent of fatal snake bites in Australia happen when a person is trying to kill or catch the snake. They said you shouldn't cut, lick, or wash a snake bite so that a doctor can swab the bite to find out if the serpent is venomous and what species it is.
   
   I liked that they gave several descriptive facts about Steve's parents. Steve's dad, Bob, and his mom, Lyn, were both great naturalists and herpetologists. Bob was raised in the state of Victoria by his mom and grand mother during the depression. His father and grandfather both died while fighting the Japanese in the specific. Lyn worked very hard to learn better techniques for rehabilitating marsupials. Lyn and Bob knew each other since they were kids.
   
   Another thing I compliment the book on was that it told of times when they made mistakes or felt embarrassed. When Steve was very young his dad had to push him out of the way because he was stepping on brown snake, one of the most venomous snakes in the world. Another time, Steve caught several red-bellied black snakes and brought them on the bus. His dad was furious and yelled at him right in front of his friends. When Steve and Terri were out catching crocs Terri couldn't keep the spotlight still, resulting in Steve missing the little crocodiles. The lives of Steve and Terri Irwin are never dull and are full of adventure. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in adventure and wildlife.



2. "Hold onto their heads while I get their jaws apart." Steve Irwin grew up with his parents and sisters in Australia. His parents started the Beerwah Reptile Park, which later grew into Australia Zoo. Ever since he was a young boy, Steve has helped his dad capture and relocate crocodiles. In September of 1991, Terri and a friend went to Australia for vacation. Terri was introduced to Steve and four months later they were engaged. Immediately after their wedding in June in Terri's hometown in Oregon, they went back to Australia to begin filming the hit TV series "The Crocodile Hunter." They had many adventures all over the world and were running the zoo. On July 24, 1998 their daughter Bindi Sue Irwin was born. They continue to help injured and orphaned animals and teach people to conserve wild life. I really enjoyed reading this book.
   
   I liked that the book told of some of their adventures. One of the trips they went on was to drive along the longest manmade structure, Australia's Dingo Fence. Another was when they had to free climb to a lower edge of a cliff and Terri nearly fell. One of their adventures with a crocodile was when they were trying to move Charlie from a cement enclosure to the zoo.
   
   I also liked that they put animal facts and survival tips in the book without being a distraction. They said that the perentie was the largest lizard in Australia. They also said that ninety percent of fatal snake bites in Australia happen when a person is trying to kill or catch the snake. They said you shouldn't cut, lick, or wash a snake bite so that a doctor can swab the bite to find out if the serpent is venomous and what species it is.
   
   I liked that they gave several descriptive facts about Steve's parents. Steve's dad, Bob, and his mom, Lyn, were both great naturalists and herpetologists. Bob was raised in the state of Victoria by his mom and grandmother during the depression. His father and grandfather both died while fighting the Japanese in the specific. Lyn worked very hard to learn better techniques for rehabilitating marsupials. Lyn and Bob knew each other since they were kids.
   
   Another thing I compliment the book on was that it told of times when they made mistakes or felt embarrassed. When Steve was very young his dad had to push him out of the way because he was stepping on brown snake, one of the most venomous snakes in the world. Another time, Steve caught several red-bellied black snakes and brought them on the bus. His dad was furious and yelled at him right in front of his friends. When Steve and Terri were out catching crocs Terri couldn't keep the spotlight still, resulting in Steve missing the little crocodiles. The lives of Steve and Terri Irwin are never dull and are full of adventure. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in adventure and wildlife.
   
   
   By K. Lissner



3. This book is a treasure, for those who loved Steve and Terri Irwin. It is filled with wonderful photos of their lives together, and written in an easy to read style. I love having it on my coffee table as a reference book, and it helps to keep Steve's memory alive.



4. Great book for a great man.



5. This book reveils the true story of how a man and his family are saving Australian animals. You will read about the true love of a person who entertained and educated the world. Any one who heard Steve torments or harms animals to do a show will read the truth. He will say why he captures an animal and what he learns from the animal and what happens after he releases the animal or takes it to his zoo..The book is told by Steve and Terry Irwin. It includeds stories from his mom and dad and Wes, the zoo director. It reveals Steve Irwins real story, from a child through the birth of his daughter and more.. Junior High school kids and older will love the story and the photos are amazing.. You should read this book.. Then visit his web site.

5 comments about Goatwalking: 2A Guide to Wildland Living.

1. This book is part journal and part manifesto of Jim Corbett's experience trekking back and forth across the Sonoran Desert as a "coyote"guide for Mexican, Guatamalan and Equedoran refugees from the 'covert' destabilization campaigns that the US was waging in Central America in the 1980s. Equal parts goatherder and revolutionary, Corbett covers in detail a variety of issues ranging from the dietary requirements of goats and people in the desert to an account of the legal hassles Guatamalan refugees encountered after successfully walking across the desert to the apparent safety of Tucson AZ. This book is a poetic snapshot of the people affected by last stages of the US's outdated coldwar policies and an educated loner who gave a damn.



2. This singular and highly important book should not be out of print. Corbett writes on life, faith, and action in a poetic and prophetic voice. His call is toward a far more difficult path than one finds in much of what passes for "religious" action in today's society. His mind is on fire, and he ranges over a vast, and seemingly unrelated realm of subjects including politics, philosophy, faith, ecology, civil disobedience, wilderness survival, and how to raise (and slaughter) goats. Somehow he manages to pull it all together into a seamless whole. His suggestions for building a truly catholic (in the all inclusive form of the word) church point the way toward a true morality, something greatly needed in these times of moral posturing by our leading politicians and religious leaders.

   This book is a must read for anyone interested in considering where our society has gone astray, and how we can return to the true path.




3. This book like walking, meanders in and out of many ideas and worlds. Sometimes this is disconcerting, but it also inspiring. And really tells how you can achieve self sufficency by goatwalking.

   I hope one day to re read this while sitting in a canyon far from civilization with my goats in the distance.




4. I read this book right after I finished my own wilderness-wandering, in the same part of the desert that Corbett wandered in before he died. Go to Wikepedia and search for Jim Corbett. You'll find that he was an intensely inspiring person. Read his book and you'll find he was a fantastic writer too. Your jaw will be dropping. Read it.



5. It's an interesting book, and well-written, but I was looking for more practical information. Most of the book is the author's personal philosophy (Quaker and environmentalist), and his adventures helping refugees from El Salvador and Guatemala. These are interesting topics, if that's what you are looking for, but I was hoping for more practical information on living with goats in the wilderness.

No comments about Mister Zoo: The Life and Legacy of Dr. Charles Schroeder.

1 comments about Neyman.

1. Constance Reid is a biographer who has specialized writing about the lives of mathematicians, statisticians and scientists. Besides Neyman's book she wrote one about Courant.
   
   Neyman had a very interesting life, from his early years in Europe where he grew up and did his fundamental work on mathematical statistics particularly the Neyman-Pearson theory fo hypothesis testing. Neyman met controversy head on as he like Karl Pearson before him had lively debates with Fisher as to what constitutes a test of significance. Neyman's approach was what is now called the frequentist approach which draws inference on the basis of what would happen by repeated sampling from an underlying probability distribution (the sampling distribution). Fisher on the other hand thought that what happens in other possible samples is irrelevant and that inference should be based solely on the data at hand. This led to what he called fiducial theory. Although during Fisher's lifetime the debate on this raged, the fiducial theory has largely been discredited. Differences in inference between the two approaches often did not occur and it wasn't until Neyman discovered the difference in results when nuisance parameters were involved, starting with the famous Behrens-Fisher problem of estimating the difference between the means of two normal distributions when the variances are unknown but must be assumed to be unequal.
   
   Besides his fundamental contributions, Neyman immigrated to the United States and founded the Statistics Department at the University of California. He turned Berkeley into a hotbed for statistics and created one of the top statistics departments in the world, rivaled by its neighbor across the San Francsico Bay Leland Stnaford Junior University. In his 80s Neyman was as vibrant and productive as ever and was able to fubction this way due to the nursing help of his colleague and Berkeley Professor Elizabeth Scott. Reid emphasizes the last three years of Neyman's life when she interviewed him and followed him around.
   
   I was a graduate student a Stanford during the period from 1974-1978. Each year Stanford and Berkeley would hold joint symposia that were commonly attended by the fraduate students and faculty from both schools, When the lectures were in Berkeley they were always followed by a dinner for the speaker at a nice Berkeley restaurant. It was on these occasions that I became acquainted with Neyman, Scott, Freedman, Bickel, LeCam, Blackwell and Lehmann. These were some of the top names in statistics at the time. Over at Stanford we had our own set of famous names with Efron, Miller, Moses, Diaconis, Olkin, Siegmund and Stein.
   
   The strong academic and social nature of Jerzy Neyman and the Berkeley group that I personally expereinced is very well portrayed by Constance Reid in this fine biography. Technical details about statistical matters are kept out of the book. So this book can be enjoyed by people without much mathematical or statistical knowledge.

No comments about Michael Faraday, His Life and Work.

5 comments about Ocean Warrior: My Battle to End the Illegal Slaughter on the High Seas.

1. Paul Watson is one of the few hominids on this planet who actually knows what he's doing with his life. Over the last two hundred years humanity's impact upon Gaia has become exponential. Only people with his courage, compassion and vision offer us any hope. "Whether 'tis better in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them" -Shakespeare



2. I worked and sailed with Captain Watson for more than three years. You may not like the what he does or how he writes, but that doesn't matter one bit to him! His only concern is for those animals and ecosystems that he is fighting so hard to protect. He is an gifted leader and speaker, one of the world's most successful activists (if you count results rather than media attention), and has been an inspiration to and mentor of many others that fight for environmental justice.

   Read this book, try to soak up some of his message and his passion - then do something with it.




3. Watson wasn't enforcing international law, there was no international LAW against the "crimes" he claims whalers committed. He has stated elsewhere that he has authority to "enforce" this law from a [non binding] UN resolution that was issued many months AFTER he started sinking ships.
   This is a self aggrandizing piece of droll from a common criminal. He gives a bad name to a good cause.
   I'm very glad I had someone else's copy and I didn't spend my money on it.



4. One of the best books I have ever read! Without any question. Watson will make you laugh, cry, and most of all, get up and take action. He is one of the few humans I admire. For the most part I am so disgusted with my species I am ashamed to belong to the human race. Capt'n Watson and his crew are amoung the few souls I have any respect for. He is a true Mahatma. READ THIS BOOK!
   I was taught humans are neither demons nor angels but occupy the spectrum in between. Well far too many of us gravitate towards one end of the spectrum don't we? And that's why our homeworld has become the cesspool that it is. If we make it out of this mess, it will be because of people like Watson.



5. This book will make you laugh and cry all at once. Paul is a great writer and has packed more adventure into his life that all the Star Trek episodes put together. Time after time as you read you are sure he is done for this time, will be dead or in jail, but time after time he miraculously prevails in his Pirate Vikinq quest to save the whales.

No comments about The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.

No comments about Gregor Mendel: Planting the Seeds of Genetics.

No comments about My Father and Albert Einstein: Biography of a Department Store owner, whose thirst for knowledge enabled his close friendship with a genius who changed man's concepts of the universe.