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 Customer Reviews
Solid science and thoroughly enjoyable, 28 Oct 2008
Phil Plait once again manages to convey a hefty dose of solid scientific knowledge in an entertaining and real page-turner fashion. Covering pretty much every sci-fi end-of-the-world threat from outer space he educates and entertains with stories of supernovae, black holes, gamma bursts and the like.
Along with the scientific explanations there is a common thread of pragmatic risk appraisal without the usual sensationalism. Even the benefits of many of the risks are discussed, such as the generation of heavier elements by supernovae.
Death from the Skies is both enjoyable and educational, and you are unlikely to be disappointed.
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Customer Reviews
Solid science and thoroughly enjoyable, 28 Oct 2008
Phil Plait once again manages to convey a hefty dose of solid scientific knowledge in an entertaining and real page-turner fashion. Covering pretty much every sci-fi end-of-the-world threat from outer space he educates and entertains with stories of supernovae, black holes, gamma bursts and the like.
Along with the scientific explanations there is a common thread of pragmatic risk appraisal without the usual sensationalism. Even the benefits of many of the risks are discussed, such as the generation of heavier elements by supernovae.
Death from the Skies is both enjoyable and educational, and you are unlikely to be disappointed. Much more than Quick Mastering Tips, 05 Jul 2007
I must say I found this book an excellent read. I'm currently self producing an album of some of my songs and got this book in the hope that I'd get some quick tips to try and do a half decent master of the mixes. What it actually did was make me go back to the mixes and question the decisions I'd made to get there.
The author's technical knowledge is extremely high and has definitely given me a clearer understanding of the scope and limitations of the gear at my disposal. More important though is his insistance on not always using processing as a crutch and encouraging you to LISTEN before and after plugging in the standard fallback eq/compressor. I found it refreshing that he focused on music as an art and insisted that within all the requisite science of audio production you should never lose sight of the musical line of the recording your producing.
In a way this book has been temporarily counter productive for me as rather than giving me quick fixes for the last step in production its set me back a few stages to reflect. Hopefully though this will lead to a better, more transparent final product. I suspect that, as a long serving mastering engineer, this is more than a little of the author's intention. As he states several times a good mix is the key to a great master. I think the truly intended sense of this book's title is, therefore, a more all encompassing Mastering the Art and Science of Audio. A must buy, 14 Dec 2006
If your serious about music and want to really produce some excellent sounds you must buy this book.
Professional or home studio, dance music or band producer this is where to get ahead. One of the few authoritative books about audio, 27 Aug 2004
The world of audio is full of stupid explanations for largely misunderstood problems. People seem to suffer paranormal phenomena with audio, and there are people who claim that a green marker can enhance the sound of a CD! This book is a welcome exception to that. It does a wonderful job describing (as the title states) the art *and* the science of mastering. The explanations of digital audio problems are scientific and rigurous, without a single exception. And the author knows his job indeed; he isn't the typical person obsessed with gear. He deeply understands how the different processors work, and the different issues with them. Following his recommendations, my editions are now much better. Moreover, the author is a member of the very small group of talented technical writers. The book is even fun to read, written in a lively style, and very interesting.
Detailed Mastering Bible, 31 Jan 2004
The degree in which the author masters the audio & digital domains is truly amazing. It goes down to the lowest physical level and lets you understand _why_ things behave as they behave, instead of just giving you a list of what not to do. This, together with invaluable examples from his more than impressive 32 years of experience in the field, makes this book more vital to your work than various pieces of expensive equipment.
So, all in all, 5 out of 5. If you are a sound engineer and you haven't bought this book yet, buy it now (or wait a little - a revision is in the pipeline for 2007!) :-)
The best book on mastering., 10 Jan 2004
If you are thinking of buying a book on the topic of mastering, then this should be it. It contains explanations of the principals and processes involved in mastering along with excellent technical explanations. If you are interested in mastering audio, whether at beginner, intermediate or expert level then you will learn something from this book. It's set out nicely and is interesting throughout. You'll soon be turning good sounding tracks into great sounding ones!
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Customer Reviews
Solid science and thoroughly enjoyable, 28 Oct 2008
Phil Plait once again manages to convey a hefty dose of solid scientific knowledge in an entertaining and real page-turner fashion. Covering pretty much every sci-fi end-of-the-world threat from outer space he educates and entertains with stories of supernovae, black holes, gamma bursts and the like.
Along with the scientific explanations there is a common thread of pragmatic risk appraisal without the usual sensationalism. Even the benefits of many of the risks are discussed, such as the generation of heavier elements by supernovae.
Death from the Skies is both enjoyable and educational, and you are unlikely to be disappointed. Much more than Quick Mastering Tips, 05 Jul 2007
I must say I found this book an excellent read. I'm currently self producing an album of some of my songs and got this book in the hope that I'd get some quick tips to try and do a half decent master of the mixes. What it actually did was make me go back to the mixes and question the decisions I'd made to get there.
The author's technical knowledge is extremely high and has definitely given me a clearer understanding of the scope and limitations of the gear at my disposal. More important though is his insistance on not always using processing as a crutch and encouraging you to LISTEN before and after plugging in the standard fallback eq/compressor. I found it refreshing that he focused on music as an art and insisted that within all the requisite science of audio production you should never lose sight of the musical line of the recording your producing.
In a way this book has been temporarily counter productive for me as rather than giving me quick fixes for the last step in production its set me back a few stages to reflect. Hopefully though this will lead to a better, more transparent final product. I suspect that, as a long serving mastering engineer, this is more than a little of the author's intention. As he states several times a good mix is the key to a great master. I think the truly intended sense of this book's title is, therefore, a more all encompassing Mastering the Art and Science of Audio. A must buy, 14 Dec 2006
If your serious about music and want to really produce some excellent sounds you must buy this book.
Professional or home studio, dance music or band producer this is where to get ahead. One of the few authoritative books about audio, 27 Aug 2004
The world of audio is full of stupid explanations for largely misunderstood problems. People seem to suffer paranormal phenomena with audio, and there are people who claim that a green marker can enhance the sound of a CD! This book is a welcome exception to that. It does a wonderful job describing (as the title states) the art *and* the science of mastering. The explanations of digital audio problems are scientific and rigurous, without a single exception. And the author knows his job indeed; he isn't the typical person obsessed with gear. He deeply understands how the different processors work, and the different issues with them. Following his recommendations, my editions are now much better. Moreover, the author is a member of the very small group of talented technical writers. The book is even fun to read, written in a lively style, and very interesting.
Detailed Mastering Bible, 31 Jan 2004
The degree in which the author masters the audio & digital domains is truly amazing. It goes down to the lowest physical level and lets you understand _why_ things behave as they behave, instead of just giving you a list of what not to do. This, together with invaluable examples from his more than impressive 32 years of experience in the field, makes this book more vital to your work than various pieces of expensive equipment.
So, all in all, 5 out of 5. If you are a sound engineer and you haven't bought this book yet, buy it now (or wait a little - a revision is in the pipeline for 2007!) :-)
The best book on mastering., 10 Jan 2004
If you are thinking of buying a book on the topic of mastering, then this should be it. It contains explanations of the principals and processes involved in mastering along with excellent technical explanations. If you are interested in mastering audio, whether at beginner, intermediate or expert level then you will learn something from this book. It's set out nicely and is interesting throughout. You'll soon be turning good sounding tracks into great sounding ones!
A loon writes..., 02 Nov 2008
I've read many books about UFOs and the like, and have considerable sympathy for the subject. This, however, is a rather embarrassing example of lunatic fringe meets conspiracy theory.
The main author, one Richard Hoagland, writes of himself in the third person throughout, as if giving a gloss of objectivity, yet it is a self-serving document, recounting the history of his brilliant ideas and his lame, biased or malign detractors, peppered with overuse of italics and shudder quotes in case you don't get the message.
But it is the wild extrapolations from extremely flimsy evidence that make this book just embarrassing and annoying to read. For Hoagland, blurry photographs of the Moon or Mars are a kind of Rorschach inkblot test: to his eye, ordinary rocks are 'mechanical debris' from some advanced but now-extinct interplanetary civilization. A rock with two dents in it is a 'robot's head' (and I suspect that a significant proportion of rocks look more like a robot's head than the example we are given). Mountains are 'pyramids'; a blurry row of rocks is a 'sphinx'. Inevitably, the not particularly face-like 'Face on Mars' gets much attention. These objects are rather more irregular than an advanced civilization ought to be able to produce - actually they look just like rocks and mountains - but this of course is explained by 'erosion' (even though no erosion takes place on the moon, not having an atmosphere or surface water).
Add to this a heavy dose of unconvincing geometry: draw enough straight lines on a photograph and you find some of them seem to connect these mysterious objects - or rather, they do if you draw enough lines and make enough use of wiggle room, such as saying a line connects to an object when actually it goes a bit to the side. (Ley lines, anyone?)
Then measure the angles produced, and with a bit more jiggling you can come up with something close to numbers that don't have any mathematical significance, like, say, e/pi, or e/root 5 - but why not more obvious constants like e or 5? Well, we are told, this is obviously an alien 'message' about hyperdimensional physics which tells us that the planets all contain a fourth-dimensional spinning pyramid or something...
Other photographs of the moon landings have even more bizarre interpretations: anything looking like a scratch on the negative is actually a 'buttress' supporting one of many giant glass domes over craters; these domes are naturally invisible in the photos (being made of glass), but hey, they're obviously there, aren't they? (Hoagland's inability to get any scientific journals to publish such results are naturally all part of the conspiracy.)
But wait, there are more dots to be connected. It's all something to do with not only the Masons, but also the Nazis (I kid you not). As shown by all kinds of things which turn out to be mysteriously symbolic: e.g. a particular moon launch occurs on the anniversary of Hitler's birthday (a date which after all only arises once every year). Quite why NASA would choose a launch date on such a cryptic yet symbolic basis, rather than - say - to do with the relative position of the earth and moon, is not clear; perhaps to send a secret message? To whom, and why? Some NASA announcement occurs three years to the day after JFK's assassination - all very suspicious and symbolic, so clearly is another secret message telling us we're-not-quite-sure-what. After all, the anniversary of JFK's assassination only comes round every year. (Come to think of it, isn't almost every day the anniversary of some more or less important historical event?)
NASA also uses strange symbolism in its official patches for space suits etc - for example, the Apollo program patch has a big letter A on it, secretly denoting (in the mind of Hoagland) not Apollo but Asar, an ancient Egyptian word for Osiris, i.e. the constellation Orion, which has something important to do with Egyptian mythology and hence pyramids and YOU SEE HOW IT ALL MAKES SENSE.
Quite how this book made it to the New York Times bestseller list is a mystery to me, and one rather more disturbing than the contents of this deranged and tedious book.
Intriguing, uncovers many layers of Conspiracy..., 11 Aug 2008
Richard Hoagland was present at JPL in 1969 as the crew of Apollo eleven was on it's way back to Earth. He saw a shady character, accompanied by high ranking NASA officials, distribute leaflets during a press conference stating that the entire moon landing had been faked on a soundstage in Nevada. This, according to Hoagland, was the genesis of the Apollo Conspiracy mythos. Logically this would make the Apollo Conspiracy a Hoax Hoax. Therefore one cannot help wondering what a Hoax Hoax Hoax would be.
Hoagland himself quotes one of his intelligence sources as saying that, "the lie is different at every level". There is no doubt that NASA is concealing something because many of the photographic materials it supplies are obviously tampered with. Hoagland states that NASA (Never A Staight Answer!) is a military organisation rather than as most people think, a civilian one. Therefore they are answerable only to the Pentagon and not to the taxpayer.
Hoagland is committed to the ancient astronauts idea. He believes that the ruins he has detected on the Moon and Mars, are many thousands of years old and probably pre- date human civilization on Earth. He apparently disregards the evidence that humans still interact with with extra- terrestrials. There is no mention in his book of the fact that the Moon, and possibly the entire solar system were created, from basic planetery raw materials, by beings far beyond our technological capacity, beings for whom time means nothing. I believe therefore that everything in our environment is controlled by these entities, whom humans often mistake for Gods.
NASA must have known since it's inception that the moon is artificial, as it's period of orbit is exactly equal to it's period of rotation; also it covers the Sun exactly during solar eclipses. I am convinced that Socrates knew this. I do not agree with Hoagland that there has been only one "time before", there have probably been many; Humankind has reached out to other worlds in the past, and may not actually originate on Earth.
In many of the Apollo photographs of the Moon, Hoagland sees huge glass domes reaching high above the lunar surface, and the remains of supporting rebars, I cannot say that I see this from the reproductions in the book, but there do seem to be atifacts and "arcology" there. Perhaps there are still humans or extra- terrestrials living within the moon, based on it's far side.
Hoagland believes in the notorious "Face on Mars". Of course, if it is truly artificial, then it certainly does not resemble any monolith on Earth, being over a mile in length and apparently honeycombed with rooms and walls; The Face itself is only visible from a high altitude. At the end of the book there are some reproductions of photographs taken by the recent Mars Reconnaissance Orbitor which according to Hoagland reveal an ancient "Headquarters" in The Face. I find it surprising that the orbital photos from Mars appear to be of higher resolution than those from the Moon.
D+ poor effort, must try harder.., 19 Apr 2008
I think the face on mars looks like a collapsed hill, and just a trick of light. The author is obsessed by it. All this astonishing alien artifacts on the moon and mars are present within Richard Hoagland's imagination, and are not present in any of the pictures. What the re-examination of the lunar landing photos probably show is the original hidden background detail of the inside of the studio where they filmed the lunar landings. There's a colour photo of the moon in this book, taken from the Apollo space craft, and according to the author, it's evidence of millions of domes of glass on the moon, as it shows a glow around the moon, which is not possible from space. The more obvious explanation for this is that the photo was taken from a telescope on the earth, and then claimed for the Apollo astronauts.
What is proven in this book is that NASA are habitual liers, and have been covering up something which is far more interesting...evidence of life on mars. What the agenda is, is not explored very well here.
The first chapters about multi-dimentional space is out of the scope for a lay-person and is a stuggle to get through.
What would make for a much better book, by another author, would be an exploration of the mars anomalies, the green-blue sky which NASA have tweeked into red, and fossil evidence on mars. Also an investigation into why NASA are compelled to lie about everything, and why should anyone trust anything they say, including that they went to the moon, when there is so much evidence to show that they didn't, and which Hoagland claims he and his associates have proved to be a false conspiracy, and he hasn't proved it at all. If NASA can fake the colours of mars, why cant they fake the supposed robot head as well, and anything else they feel like?
"Let's go fly a kite..", 08 Mar 2008
"up through the atmosphere, up where the air is clear". Quoting Mary Poppins may be a strange way to begin a review but in my opinion this author has been up where the air is clear (and perhaps a bit too thin) for far too long.
Every single half-baked conspiracy is covered in torturous depth with pictures that (try as I might) failed to convince me there are glass cities on the moon.
If you are a real paranoid X-Files freak, this is the book for you!
Don't waste your money ..., 06 Mar 2008
Possibly the worst book I have bought in many a year ... lets take every rumor ... every half truth ... every little piece of conspiracy theory, sprinkle over some numerology, some masonic interference and present it as a scientific study!
If this is what goes on at NASA then they wouldn't be able to open the doors in the morning never mind put a man on the moon ...
buy only if you have been visited by little green men ... or men in white coats!
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Customer Reviews
Solid science and thoroughly enjoyable, 28 Oct 2008
Phil Plait once again manages to convey a hefty dose of solid scientific knowledge in an entertaining and real page-turner fashion. Covering pretty much every sci-fi end-of-the-world threat from outer space he educates and entertains with stories of supernovae, black holes, gamma bursts and the like.
Along with the scientific explanations there is a common thread of pragmatic risk appraisal without the usual sensationalism. Even the benefits of many of the risks are discussed, such as the generation of heavier elements by supernovae.
Death from the Skies is both enjoyable and educational, and you are unlikely to be disappointed. Much more than Quick Mastering Tips, 05 Jul 2007
I must say I found this book an excellent read. I'm currently self producing an album of some of my songs and got this book in the hope that I'd get some quick tips to try and do a half decent master of the mixes. What it actually did was make me go back to the mixes and question the decisions I'd made to get there.
The author's technical knowledge is extremely high and has definitely given me a clearer understanding of the scope and limitations of the gear at my disposal. More important though is his insistance on not always using processing as a crutch and encouraging you to LISTEN before and after plugging in the standard fallback eq/compressor. I found it refreshing that he focused on music as an art and insisted that within all the requisite science of audio production you should never lose sight of the musical line of the recording your producing.
In a way this book has been temporarily counter productive for me as rather than giving me quick fixes for the last step in production its set me back a few stages to reflect. Hopefully though this will lead to a better, more transparent final product. I suspect that, as a long serving mastering engineer, this is more than a little of the author's intention. As he states several times a good mix is the key to a great master. I think the truly intended sense of this book's title is, therefore, a more all encompassing Mastering the Art and Science of Audio. A must buy, 14 Dec 2006
If your serious about music and want to really produce some excellent sounds you must buy this book.
Professional or home studio, dance music or band producer this is where to get ahead. One of the few authoritative books about audio, 27 Aug 2004
The world of audio is full of stupid explanations for largely misunderstood problems. People seem to suffer paranormal phenomena with audio, and there are people who claim that a green marker can enhance the sound of a CD! This book is a welcome exception to that. It does a wonderful job describing (as the title states) the art *and* the science of mastering. The explanations of digital audio problems are scientific and rigurous, without a single exception. And the author knows his job indeed; he isn't the typical person obsessed with gear. He deeply understands how the different processors work, and the different issues with them. Following his recommendations, my editions are now much better. Moreover, the author is a member of the very small group of talented technical writers. The book is even fun to read, written in a lively style, and very interesting.
Detailed Mastering Bible, 31 Jan 2004
The degree in which the author masters the audio & digital domains is truly amazing. It goes down to the lowest physical level and lets you understand _why_ things behave as they behave, instead of just giving you a list of what not to do. This, together with invaluable examples from his more than impressive 32 years of experience in the field, makes this book more vital to your work than various pieces of expensive equipment.
So, all in all, 5 out of 5. If you are a sound engineer and you haven't bought this book yet, buy it now (or wait a little - a revision is in the pipeline for 2007!) :-)
The best book on mastering., 10 Jan 2004
If you are thinking of buying a book on the topic of mastering, then this should be it. It contains explanations of the principals and processes involved in mastering along with excellent technical explanations. If you are interested in mastering audio, whether at beginner, intermediate or expert level then you will learn something from this book. It's set out nicely and is interesting throughout. You'll soon be turning good sounding tracks into great sounding ones!
A loon writes..., 02 Nov 2008
I've read many books about UFOs and the like, and have considerable sympathy for the subject. This, however, is a rather embarrassing example of lunatic fringe meets conspiracy theory.
The main author, one Richard Hoagland, writes of himself in the third person throughout, as if giving a gloss of objectivity, yet it is a self-serving document, recounting the history of his brilliant ideas and his lame, biased or malign detractors, peppered with overuse of italics and shudder quotes in case you don't get the message.
But it is the wild extrapolations from extremely flimsy evidence that make this book just embarrassing and annoying to read. For Hoagland, blurry photographs of the Moon or Mars are a kind of Rorschach inkblot test: to his eye, ordinary rocks are 'mechanical debris' from some advanced but now-extinct interplanetary civilization. A rock with two dents in it is a 'robot's head' (and I suspect that a significant proportion of rocks look more like a robot's head than the example we are given). Mountains are 'pyramids'; a blurry row of rocks is a 'sphinx'. Inevitably, the not particularly face-like 'Face on Mars' gets much attention. These objects are rather more irregular than an advanced civilization ought to be able to produce - actually they look just like rocks and mountains - but this of course is explained by 'erosion' (even though no erosion takes place on the moon, not having an atmosphere or surface water).
Add to this a heavy dose of unconvincing geometry: draw enough straight lines on a photograph and you find some of them seem to connect these mysterious objects - or rather, they do if you draw enough lines and make enough use of wiggle room, such as saying a line connects to an object when actually it goes a bit to the side. (Ley lines, anyone?)
Then measure the angles produced, and with a bit more jiggling you can come up with something close to numbers that don't have any mathematical significance, like, say, e/pi, or e/root 5 - but why not more obvious constants like e or 5? Well, we are told, this is obviously an alien 'message' about hyperdimensional physics which tells us that the planets all contain a fourth-dimensional spinning pyramid or something...
Other photographs of the moon landings have even more bizarre interpretations: anything looking like a scratch on the negative is actually a 'buttress' supporting one of many giant glass domes over craters; these domes are naturally invisible in the photos (being made of glass), but hey, they're obviously there, aren't they? (Hoagland's inability to get any scientific journals to publish such results are naturally all part of the conspiracy.)
But wait, there are more dots to be connected. It's all something to do with not only the Masons, but also the Nazis (I kid you not). As shown by all kinds of things which turn out to be mysteriously symbolic: e.g. a particular moon launch occurs on the anniversary of Hitler's birthday (a date which after all only arises once every year). Quite why NASA would choose a launch date on such a cryptic yet symbolic basis, rather than - say - to do with the relative position of the earth and moon, is not clear; perhaps to send a secret message? To whom, and why? Some NASA announcement occurs three years to the day after JFK's assassination - all very suspicious and symbolic, so clearly is another secret message telling us we're-not-quite-sure-what. After all, the anniversary of JFK's assassination only comes round every year. (Come to think of it, isn't almost every day the anniversary of some more or less important historical event?)
NASA also uses strange symbolism in its official patches for space suits etc - for example, the Apollo program patch has a big letter A on it, secretly denoting (in the mind of Hoagland) not Apollo but Asar, an ancient Egyptian word for Osiris, i.e. the constellation Orion, which has something important to do with Egyptian mythology and hence pyramids and YOU SEE HOW IT ALL MAKES SENSE.
Quite how this book made it to the New York Times bestseller list is a mystery to me, and one rather more disturbing than the contents of this deranged and tedious book.
Intriguing, uncovers many layers of Conspiracy..., 11 Aug 2008
Richard Hoagland was present at JPL in 1969 as the crew of Apollo eleven was on it's way back to Earth. He saw a shady character, accompanied by high ranking NASA officials, distribute leaflets during a press conference stating that the entire moon landing had been faked on a soundstage in Nevada. This, according to Hoagland, was the genesis of the Apollo Conspiracy mythos. Logically this would make the Apollo Conspiracy a Hoax Hoax. Therefore one cannot help wondering what a Hoax Hoax Hoax would be.
Hoagland himself quotes one of his intelligence sources as saying that, "the lie is different at every level". There is no doubt that NASA is concealing something because many of the photographic materials it supplies are obviously tampered with. Hoagland states that NASA (Never A Staight Answer!) is a military organisation rather than as most people think, a civilian one. Therefore they are answerable only to the Pentagon and not to the taxpayer.
Hoagland is committed to the ancient astronauts idea. He believes that the ruins he has detected on the Moon and Mars, are many thousands of years old and probably pre- date human civilization on Earth. He apparently disregards the evidence that humans still interact with with extra- terrestrials. There is no mention in his book of the fact that the Moon, and possibly the entire solar system were created, from basic planetery raw materials, by beings far beyond our technological capacity, beings for whom time means nothing. I believe therefore that everything in our environment is controlled by these entities, whom humans often mistake for Gods.
NASA must have known since it's inception that the moon is artificial, as it's period of orbit is exactly equal to it's period of rotation; also it covers the Sun exactly during solar eclipses. I am convinced that Socrates knew this. I do not agree with Hoagland that there has been only one "time before", there have probably been many; Humankind has reached out to other worlds in the past, and may not actually originate on Earth.
In many of the Apollo photographs of the Moon, Hoagland sees huge glass domes reaching high above the lunar surface, and the remains of supporting rebars, I cannot say that I see this from the reproductions in the book, but there do seem to be atifacts and "arcology" there. Perhaps there are still humans or extra- terrestrials living within the moon, based on it's far side.
Hoagland believes in the notorious "Face on Mars". Of course, if it is truly artificial, then it certainly does not resemble any monolith on Earth, being over a mile in length and apparently honeycombed with rooms and walls; The Face itself is only visible from a high altitude. At the end of the book there are some reproductions of photographs taken by the recent Mars Reconnaissance Orbitor which according to Hoagland reveal an ancient "Headquarters" in The Face. I find it surprising that the orbital photos from Mars appear to be of higher resolution than those from the Moon.
D+ poor effort, must try harder.., 19 Apr 2008
I think the face on mars looks like a collapsed hill, and just a trick of light. The author is obsessed by it. All this astonishing alien artifacts on the moon and mars are present within Richard Hoagland's imagination, and are not present in any of the pictures. What the re-examination of the lunar landing photos probably show is the original hidden background detail of the inside of the studio where they filmed the lunar landings. There's a colour photo of the moon in this book, taken from the Apollo space craft, and according to the author, it's evidence of millions of domes of glass on the moon, as it shows a glow around the moon, which is not possible from space. The more obvious explanation for this is that the photo was taken from a telescope on the earth, and then claimed for the Apollo astronauts.
What is proven in this book is that NASA are habitual liers, and have been covering up something which is far more interesting...evidence of life on mars. What the agenda is, is not explored very well here.
The first chapters about multi-dimentional space is out of the scope for a lay-person and is a stuggle to get through.
What would make for a much better book, by another author, would be an exploration of the mars anomalies, the green-blue sky which NASA have tweeked into red, and fossil evidence on mars. Also an investigation into why NASA are compelled to lie about everything, and why should anyone trust anything they say, including that they went to the moon, when there is so much evidence to show that they didn't, and which Hoagland claims he and his associates have proved to be a false conspiracy, and he hasn't proved it at all. If NASA can fake the colours of mars, why cant they fake the supposed robot head as well, and anything else they feel like?
"Let's go fly a kite..", 08 Mar 2008
"up through the atmosphere, up where the air is clear". Quoting Mary Poppins may be a strange way to begin a review but in my opinion this author has been up where the air is clear (and perhaps a bit too thin) for far too long.
Every single half-baked conspiracy is covered in torturous depth with pictures that (try as I might) failed to convince me there are glass cities on the moon.
If you are a real paranoid X-Files freak, this is the book for you!
Don't waste your money ..., 06 Mar 2008
Possibly the worst book I have bought in many a year ... lets take every rumor ... every half truth ... every little piece of conspiracy theory, sprinkle over some numerology, some masonic interference and present it as a scientific study!
If this is what goes on at NASA then they wouldn't be able to open the doors in the morning never mind put a man on the moon ...
buy only if you have been visited by little green men ... or men in white coats!
A must read - both entertaining and thought provoking., 28 Sep 2008
I've always been interested in NASA and the Space Shuttle. I bought this book and read it in less than a week. It's that good I found it hard to put it down!
Mike Mullane tells us in brutal honestly what it is like to be an astronaut. How the fear of a launch will keep you awake at night but then how you would not miss it for the world. The extremes are all there - from the tradegy of Challenger and Columbia, to the absolute joy of being in Space and looking back down on the Earth. And then there is Mike's sence of humour (of as he calls it - his "arrested development" sence of humour!), which is an absolute joy.
I loved this book from start to finish. It is easy to read even if you have no interest in the space programe. I recommend this to anyone. Fantastic book Mike!
Seat of the pants stuff, 11 Dec 2007
This is probably the best astronaut autobiography I have read with the possible exception of Michael Collin's book. Colonel Mike Mullane was the first generation of the space shuttle astronauts specifically selected to fly on the machine. His book is a no holds bared account of his time before and at NASA and the courage, terror and perhaps foolhardy nature it takes to ride into space on rocket which basically has no effective escape system. Personally I liked all the anecdotes that are scattered throughout the book, I particularly liked the way he described the meeting of two cultures, scientist astronaut and military astronaut. Having served in the infantry and being a scientist I can well appreciate the two would not initially get along. As Colonel Mullane describes he was a product of his environment, Vietnam veteran and survivor of a catholic school. However, the moral of his story and life education is the respect he developed for women who want a career and also people who are prepared to put their life on the line in pursuit of a common goal which is unobtainable to most. This is one of my selected `toilet' books and it is well thumbed companion. Friends who come to stay always get addicted when reading it and basically only emerge when nagged by their wives, who then get addicted to. Well worth the read.
A no holds barred account of 80s NASA, 01 May 2007
I bought this as i wanted to know all about spaceflight and the workings of NASA from someone who had actually been there and i got just that despite the personality of the author.
Mullane recounts his life before NASA, his yearnings for space and then all his time at NASA. His intense enthusiasm for space drives the narrative. He gives a gritty and honest view of what it was like to work at NASA including internal politics and competition for flight places. Specifically his detail on waiting to fly, sitting on the launch pad and being in space was the part i was most excited to read.
However it does come across immediately that Mullane is (and freely admits) a chauvinist, extremely childish and living up to a gung-ho, yee-ha 'Top Gun' stereotype of American fighter pilots. The regular comments and jokes about his other colleagues, pranks and attitude to the world were really tiresome and quite shocking in places. This continues throughout and although doesn't stop this from being a great read is a continual annoyance.
If you are interested in the US Space Program, then read this book., 04 Sep 2006
There are a good number of astronaut biographies available. Inevitably there is fair amount of repetition sometimes straying towards telling you what SHOULD have happened rather than what DID happen. But Mike's book is different. This is the story of what it's all about being an astronaut: nuts and bolts, human weaknesses, bureaucracy, chauvanism, fear, elation, reality. But above all the need to fly into space. If you were to read only one astronaut biography, then this should be it.
the Bill Bryson of space travel, 03 May 2006
I've been waiting for this book since I was a kid watching the first landing on the Moon on TV. It is something completely different from what I read till now on the spacce project. To say that Mike Mullane is the Bill Bryson of space travel is to underestimate him. You will not only appreciate the story, the inside view on the US space program (including the permanent mismanagement). You will also learn about a real dream love: the one with his wife, Donna. What is really outstanding in Mike is the chase for the "ultimate honesty". He constantly refuse the "politically correct" approach and goes straigth to the core of our relations to space travels, dreams, technology, relation with... women, with our boss and with... the girl of our dream, in this case another Astronaut tragically dead in the Challenger accident. The last pages in particular are surprisingly good and poetic. I would never expect something like that.
Thanks, Mike, for your honesty.
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Customer Reviews
Solid science and thoroughly enjoyable, 28 Oct 2008
Phil Plait once again manages to convey a hefty dose of solid scientific knowledge in an entertaining and real page-turner fashion. Covering pretty much every sci-fi end-of-the-world threat from outer space he educates and entertains with stories of supernovae, black holes, gamma bursts and the like.
Along with the scientific explanations there is a common thread of pragmatic risk appraisal without the usual sensationalism. Even the benefits of many of the risks are discussed, such as the generation of heavier elements by supernovae.
Death from the Skies is both enjoyable and educational, and you are unlikely to be disappointed. Much more than Quick Mastering Tips, 05 Jul 2007
I must say I found this book an excellent read. I'm currently self producing an album of some of my songs and got this book in the hope that I'd get some quick tips to try and do a half decent master of the mixes. What it actually did was make me go back to the mixes and question the decisions I'd made to get there.
The author's technical knowledge is extremely high and has definitely given me a clearer understanding of the scope and limitations of the gear at my disposal. More important though is his insistance on not always using processing as a crutch and encouraging you to LISTEN before and after plugging in the standard fallback eq/compressor. I found it refreshing that he focused on music as an art and insisted that within all the requisite science of audio production you should never lose sight of the musical line of the recording your producing.
In a way this book has been temporarily counter productive for me as rather than giving me quick fixes for the last step in production its set me back a few stages to reflect. Hopefully though this will lead to a better, more transparent final product. I suspect that, as a long serving mastering engineer, this is more than a little of the author's intention. As he states several times a good mix is the key to a great master. I think the truly intended sense of this book's title is, therefore, a more all encompassing Mastering the Art and Science of Audio. A must buy, 14 Dec 2006
If your serious about music and want to really produce some excellent sounds you must buy this book.
Professional or home studio, dance music or band producer this is where to get ahead. One of the few authoritative books about audio, 27 Aug 2004
The world of audio is full of stupid explanations for largely misunderstood problems. People seem to suffer paranormal phenomena with audio, and there are people who claim that a green marker can enhance the sound of a CD! This book is a welcome exception to that. It does a wonderful job describing (as the title states) the art *and* the science of mastering. The explanations of digital audio problems are scientific and rigurous, without a single exception. And the author knows his job indeed; he isn't the typical person obsessed with gear. He deeply understands how the different processors work, and the different issues with them. Following his recommendations, my editions are now much better. Moreover, the author is a member of the very small group of talented technical writers. The book is even fun to read, written in a lively style, and very interesting.
Detailed Mastering Bible, 31 Jan 2004
The degree in which the author masters the audio & digital domains is truly amazing. It goes down to the lowest physical level and lets you understand _why_ things behave as they behave, instead of just giving you a list of what not to do. This, together with invaluable examples from his more than impressive 32 years of experience in the field, makes this book more vital to your work than various pieces of expensive equipment.
So, all in all, 5 out of 5. If you are a sound engineer and you haven't bought this book yet, buy it now (or wait a little - a revision is in the pipeline for 2007!) :-)
The best book on mastering., 10 Jan 2004
If you are thinking of buying a book on the topic of mastering, then this should be it. It contains explanations of the principals and processes involved in mastering along with excellent technical explanations. If you are interested in mastering audio, whether at beginner, intermediate or expert level then you will learn something from this book. It's set out nicely and is interesting throughout. You'll soon be turning good sounding tracks into great sounding ones!
A loon writes..., 02 Nov 2008
I've read many books about UFOs and the like, and have considerable sympathy for the subject. This, however, is a rather embarrassing example of lunatic fringe meets conspiracy theory.
The main author, one Richard Hoagland, writes of himself in the third person throughout, as if giving a gloss of objectivity, yet it is a self-serving document, recounting the history of his brilliant ideas and his lame, biased or malign detractors, peppered with overuse of italics and shudder quotes in case you don't get the message.
But it is the wild extrapolations from extremely flimsy evidence that make this book just embarrassing and annoying to read. For Hoagland, blurry photographs of the Moon or Mars are a kind of Rorschach inkblot test: to his eye, ordinary rocks are 'mechanical debris' from some advanced but now-extinct interplanetary civilization. A rock with two dents in it is a 'robot's head' (and I suspect that a significant proportion of rocks look more like a robot's head than the example we are given). Mountains are 'pyramids'; a blurry row of rocks is a 'sphinx'. Inevitably, the not particularly face-like 'Face on Mars' gets much attention. These objects are rather more irregular than an advanced civilization ought to be able to produce - actually they look just like rocks and mountains - but this of course is explained by 'erosion' (even though no erosion takes place on the moon, not having an atmosphere or surface water).
Add to this a heavy dose of unconvincing geometry: draw enough straight lines on a photograph and you find some of them seem to connect these mysterious objects - or rather, they do if you draw enough lines and make enough use of wiggle room, such as saying a line connects to an object when actually it goes a bit to the side. (Ley lines, anyone?)
Then measure the angles produced, and with a bit more jiggling you can come up with something close to numbers that don't have any mathematical significance, like, say, e/pi, or e/root 5 - but why not more obvious constants like e or 5? Well, we are told, this is obviously an alien 'message' about hyperdimensional physics which tells us that the planets all contain a fourth-dimensional spinning pyramid or something...
Other photographs of the moon landings have even more bizarre interpretations: anything looking like a scratch on the negative is actually a 'buttress' supporting one of many giant glass domes over craters; these domes are naturally invisible in the photos (being made of glass), but hey, they're obviously there, aren't they? (Hoagland's inability to get any scientific journals to publish such results are naturally all part of the conspiracy.)
But wait, there are more dots to be connected. It's all something to do with not only the Masons, but also the Nazis (I kid you not). As shown by all kinds of things which turn out to be mysteriously symbolic: e.g. a particular moon launch occurs on the anniversary of Hitler's birthday (a date which after all only arises once every year). Quite why NASA would choose a launch date on such a cryptic yet symbolic basis, rather than - say - to do with the relative position of the earth and moon, is not clear; perhaps to send a secret message? To whom, and why? Some NASA announcement occurs three years to the day after JFK's assassination - all very suspicious and symbolic, so clearly is another secret message telling us we're-not-quite-sure-what. After all, the anniversary of JFK's assassination only comes round every year. (Come to think of it, isn't almost every day the anniversary of some more or less important historical event?)
NASA also uses strange symbolism in its official patches for space suits etc - for example, the Apollo program patch has a big letter A on it, secretly denoting (in the mind of Hoagland) not Apollo but Asar, an ancient Egyptian word for Osiris, i.e. the constellation Orion, which has something important to do with Egyptian mythology and hence pyramids and YOU SEE HOW IT ALL MAKES SENSE.
Quite how this book made it to the New York Times bestseller list is a mystery to me, and one rather more disturbing than the contents of this deranged and tedious book.
Intriguing, uncovers many layers of Conspiracy..., 11 Aug 2008
Richard Hoagland was present at JPL in 1969 as the crew of Apollo eleven was on it's way back to Earth. He saw a shady character, accompanied by high ranking NASA officials, distribute leaflets during a press conference stating that the entire moon landing had been faked on a soundstage in Nevada. This, according to Hoagland, was the genesis of the Apollo Conspiracy mythos. Logically this would make the Apollo Conspiracy a Hoax Hoax. Therefore one cannot help wondering what a Hoax Hoax Hoax would be.
Hoagland himself quotes one of his intelligence sources as saying that, "the lie is different at every level". There is no doubt that NASA is concealing something because many of the photographic materials it supplies are obviously tampered with. Hoagland states that NASA (Never A Staight Answer!) is a military organisation rather than as most people think, a civilian one. Therefore they are answerable only to the Pentagon and not to the taxpayer.
Hoagland is committed to the ancient astronauts idea. He believes that the ruins he has detected on the Moon and Mars, are many thousands of years old and probably pre- date human civilization on Earth. He apparently disregards the evidence that humans still interact with with extra- terrestrials. There is no mention in his book of the fact that the Moon, and possibly the entire solar system were created, from basic planetery raw materials, by beings far beyond our technological capacity, beings for whom time means nothing. I believe therefore that everything in our environment is controlled by these entities, whom humans often mistake for Gods.
NASA must have known since it's inception that the moon is artificial, as it's period of orbit is exactly equal to it's period of rotation; also it covers the Sun exactly during solar eclipses. I am convinced that Socrates knew this. I do not agree with Hoagland that there has been only one "time before", there have probably been many; Humankind has reached out to other worlds in the past, and may not actually originate on Earth.
In many of the Apollo photographs of the Moon, Hoagland sees huge glass domes reaching high above the lunar surface, and the remains of supporting rebars, I cannot say that I see this from the reproductions in the book, but there do seem to be atifacts and "arcology" there. Perhaps there are still humans or extra- terrestrials living within the moon, based on it's far side.
Hoagland believes in the notorious "Face on Mars". Of course, if it is truly artificial, then it certainly does not resemble any monolith on Earth, being over a mile in length and apparently honeycombed with rooms and walls; The Face itself is only visible from a high altitude. At the end of the book there are some reproductions of photographs taken by the recent Mars Reconnaissance Orbitor which according to Hoagland reveal an ancient "Headquarters" in The Face. I find it surprising that the orbital photos from Mars appear to be of higher resolution than those from the Moon.
D+ poor effort, must try harder.., 19 Apr 2008
I think the face on mars looks like a collapsed hill, and just a trick of light. The author is obsessed by it. All this astonishing alien artifacts on the moon and mars are present within Richard Hoagland's imagination, and are not present in any of the pictures. What the re-examination of the lunar landing photos probably show is the original hidden background detail of the inside of the studio where they filmed the lunar landings. There's a colour photo of the moon in this book, taken from the Apollo space craft, and according to the author, it's evidence of millions of domes of glass on the moon, as it shows a glow around the moon, which is not possible from space. The more obvious explanation for this is that the photo was taken from a telescope on the earth, and then claimed for the Apollo astronauts.
What is proven in this book is that NASA are habitual liers, and have been covering up something which is far more interesting...evidence of life on mars. What the agenda is, is not explored very well here.
The first chapters about multi-dimentional space is out of the scope for a lay-person and is a stuggle to get through.
What would make for a much better book, by another author, would be an exploration of the mars anomalies, the green-blue sky which NASA have tweeked into red, and fossil evidence on mars. Also an investigation into why NASA are compelled to lie about everything, and why should anyone trust anything they say, including that they went to the moon, when there is so much evidence to show that they didn't, and which Hoagland claims he and his associates have proved to be a false conspiracy, and he hasn't proved it at all. If NASA can fake the colours of mars, why cant they fake the supposed robot head as well, and anything else they feel like?
"Let's go fly a kite..", 08 Mar 2008
"up through the atmosphere, up where the air is clear". Quoting Mary Poppins may be a strange way to begin a review but in my opinion this author has been up where the air is clear (and perhaps a bit too thin) for far too long.
Every single half-baked conspiracy is covered in torturous depth with pictures that (try as I might) failed to convince me there are glass cities on the moon.
If you are a real paranoid X-Files freak, this is the book for you!
Don't waste your money ..., 06 Mar 2008
Possibly the worst book I have bought in many a year ... lets take every rumor ... every half truth ... every little piece of conspiracy theory, sprinkle over some numerology, some masonic interference and present it as a scientific study!
If this is what goes on at NASA then they wouldn't be able to open the doors in the morning never mind put a man on the moon ...
buy only if you have been visited by little green men ... or men in white coats!
A must read - both entertaining and thought provoking., 28 Sep 2008
I've always been interested in NASA and the Space Shuttle. I bought this book and read it in less than a week. It's that good I found it hard to put it down!
Mike Mullane tells us in brutal honestly what it is like to be an astronaut. How the fear of a launch will keep you awake at night but then how you would not miss it for the world. The extremes are all there - from the tradegy of Challenger and Columbia, to the absolute joy of being in Space and looking back down on the Earth. And then there is Mike's sence of humour (of as he calls it - his "arrested development" sence of humour!), which is an absolute joy.
I loved this book from start to finish. It is easy to read even if you have no interest in the space programe. I recommend this to anyone. Fantastic book Mike!
Seat of the pants stuff, 11 Dec 2007
This is probably the best astronaut autobiography I have read with the possible exception of Michael Collin's book. Colonel Mike Mullane was the first generation of the space shuttle astronauts specifically selected to fly on the machine. His book is a no holds bared account of his time before and at NASA and the courage, terror and perhaps foolhardy nature it takes to ride into space on rocket which basically has no effective escape system. Personally I liked all the anecdotes that are scattered throughout the book, I particularly liked the way he described the meeting of two cultures, scientist astronaut and military astronaut. Having served in the infantry and being a scientist I can well appreciate the two would not initially get along. As Colonel Mullane describes he was a product of his environment, Vietnam veteran and survivor of a catholic school. However, the moral of his story and life education is the respect he developed for women who want a career and also people who are prepared to put their life on the line in pursuit of a common goal which is unobtainable to most. This is one of my selected `toilet' books and it is well thumbed companion. Friends who come to stay always get addicted when reading it and basically only emerge when nagged by their wives, who then get addicted to. Well worth the read.
A no holds barred account of 80s NASA, 01 May 2007
I bought this as i wanted to know all about spaceflight and the workings of NASA from someone who had actually been there and i got just that despite the personality of the author.
Mullane recounts his life before NASA, his yearnings for space and then all his time at NASA. His intense enthusiasm for space drives the narrative. He gives a gritty and honest view of what it was like to work at NASA including internal politics and competition for flight places. Specifically his detail on waiting to fly, sitting on the launch pad and being in space was the part i was most excited to read.
However it does come across immediately that Mullane is (and freely admits) a chauvinist, extremely childish and living up to a gung-ho, yee-ha 'Top Gun' stereotype of American fighter pilots. The regular comments and jokes about his other colleagues, pranks and attitude to the world were really tiresome and quite shocking in places. This continues throughout and although doesn't stop this from being a great read is a continual annoyance.
If you are interested in the US Space Program, then read this book., 04 Sep 2006
There are a good number of astronaut biographies available. Inevitably there is fair amount of repetition sometimes straying towards telling you what SHOULD have happened rather than what DID happen. But Mike's book is different. This is the story of what it's all about being an astronaut: nuts and bolts, human weaknesses, bureaucracy, chauvanism, fear, elation, reality. But above all the need to fly into space. If you were to read only one astronaut biography, then this should be it.
the Bill Bryson of space travel, 03 May 2006
I've been waiting for this book since I was a kid watching the first landing on the Moon on TV. It is something completely different from what I read till now on the spacce project. To say that Mike Mullane is the Bill Bryson of space travel is to underestimate him. You will not only appreciate the story, the inside view on the US space program (including the permanent mismanagement). You will also learn about a real dream love: the one with his wife, Donna. What is really outstanding in Mike is the chase for the "ultimate honesty". He constantly refuse the "politically correct" approach and goes straigth to the core of our relations to space travels, dreams, technology, relation with... women, with our boss and with... the girl of our dream, in this case another Astronaut tragically dead in the Challenger accident. The last pages in particular are surprisingly good and poetic. I would never expect something like that.
Thanks, Mike, for your honesty.
Really good introdution, 21 Jul 2003
This book is aq really good introdution to the life in the oceans. I recently used this book for a module in my Oceanography degree and it was really helpful. I also recommend this book for Marine Biologists as well.
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Customer Reviews
Solid science and thoroughly enjoyable, 28 Oct 2008
Phil Plait once again manages to convey a hefty dose of solid scientific knowledge in an entertaining and real page-turner fashion. Covering pretty much every sci-fi end-of-the-world threat from outer space he educates and entertains with stories of supernovae, black holes, gamma bursts and the like.
Along with the scientific explanations there is a common thread of pragmatic risk appraisal without the usual sensationalism. Even the benefits of many of the risks are discussed, such as the generation of heavier elements by supernovae.
Death from the Skies is both enjoyable and educational, and you are unlikely to be disappointed. Much more than Quick Mastering Tips, 05 Jul 2007
I must say I found this book an excellent read. I'm currently self producing an album of some of my songs and got this book in the hope that I'd get some quick tips to try and do a half decent master of the mixes. What it actually did was make me go back to the mixes and question the decisions I'd made to get there.
The author's technical knowledge is extremely high and has definitely given me a clearer understanding of the scope and limitations of the gear at my disposal. More important though is his insistance on not always using processing as a crutch and encouraging you to LISTEN before and after plugging in the standard fallback eq/compressor. I found it refreshing that he focused on music as an art and insisted that within all the requisite science of audio production you should never lose sight of the musical line of the recording your producing.
In a way this book has been temporarily counter productive for me as rather than giving me quick fixes for the last step in production its set me back a few stages to reflect. Hopefully though this will lead to a better, more transparent final product. I suspect that, as a long serving mastering engineer, this is more than a little of the author's intention. As he states several times a good mix is the key to a great master. I think the truly intended sense of this book's title is, therefore, a more all encompassing Mastering the Art and Science of Audio. A must buy, 14 Dec 2006
If your serious about music and want to really produce some excellent sounds you must buy this book.
Professional or home studio, dance music or band producer this is where to get ahead. One of the few authoritative books about audio, 27 Aug 2004
The world of audio is full of stupid explanations for largely misunderstood problems. People seem to suffer paranormal phenomena with audio, and there are people who claim that a green marker can enhance the sound of a CD! This book is a welcome exception to that. It does a wonderful job describing (as the title states) the art *and* the science of mastering. The explanations of digital audio problems are scientific and rigurous, without a single exception. And the author knows his job indeed; he isn't the typical person obsessed with gear. He deeply understands how the different processors work, and the different issues with them. Following his recommendations, my editions are now much better. Moreover, the author is a member of the very small group of talented technical writers. The book is even fun to read, written in a lively style, and very interesting.
Detailed Mastering Bible, 31 Jan 2004
The degree in which the author masters the audio & digital domains is truly amazing. It goes down to the lowest physical level and lets you understand _why_ things behave as they behave, instead of just giving you a list of what not to do. This, together with invaluable examples from his more than impressive 32 years of experience in the field, makes this book more vital to your work than various pieces of expensive equipment.
So, all in all, 5 out of 5. If you are a sound engineer and you haven't bought this book yet, buy it now (or wait a little - a revision is in the pipeline for 2007!) :-)
The best book on mastering., 10 Jan 2004
If you are thinking of buying a book on the topic of mastering, then this should be it. It contains explanations of the principals and processes involved in mastering along with excellent technical explanations. If you are interested in mastering audio, whether at beginner, intermediate or expert level then you will learn something from this book. It's set out nicely and is interesting throughout. You'll soon be turning good sounding tracks into great sounding ones!
A loon writes..., 02 Nov 2008
I've read many books about UFOs and the like, and have considerable sympathy for the subject. This, however, is a rather embarrassing example of lunatic fringe meets conspiracy theory.
The main author, one Richard Hoagland, writes of himself in the third person throughout, as if giving a gloss of objectivity, yet it is a self-serving document, recounting the history of his brilliant ideas and his lame, biased or malign detractors, peppered with overuse of italics and shudder quotes in case you don't get the message.
But it is the wild extrapolations from extremely flimsy evidence that make this book just embarrassing and annoying to read. For Hoagland, blurry photographs of the Moon or Mars are a kind of Rorschach inkblot test: to his eye, ordinary rocks are 'mechanical debris' from some advanced but now-extinct interplanetary civilization. A rock with two dents in it is a 'robot's head' (and I suspect that a significant proportion of rocks look more like a robot's head than the example we are given). Mountains are 'pyramids'; a blurry row of rocks is a 'sphinx'. Inevitably, the not particularly face-like 'Face on Mars' gets much attention. These objects are rather more irregular than an advanced civilization ought to be able to produce - actually they look just like rocks and mountains - but this of course is explained by 'erosion' (even though no erosion takes place on the moon, not having an atmosphere or surface water).
Add to this a heavy dose of unconvincing geometry: draw enough straight lines on a photograph and you find some of them seem to connect these mysterious objects - or rather, they do if you draw enough lines and make enough use of wiggle room, such as saying a line connects to an object when actually it goes a bit to the side. (Ley lines, anyone?)
Then measure the angles produced, and with a bit more jiggling you can come up with something close to numbers that don't have any mathematical significance, like, say, e/pi, or e/root 5 - but why not more obvious constants like e or 5? Well, we are told, this is obviously an alien 'message' about hyperdimensional physics which tells us that the planets all contain a fourth-dimensional spinning pyramid or something...
Other photographs of the moon landings have even more bizarre interpretations: anything looking like a scratch on the negative is actually a 'buttress' supporting one of many giant glass domes over craters; these domes are naturally invisible in the photos (being made of glass), but hey, they're obviously there, aren't they? (Hoagland's inability to get any scientific journals to publish such results are naturally all part of the conspiracy.)
But wait, there are more dots to be connected. It's all something to do with not only the Masons, but also the Nazis (I kid you not). As shown by all kinds of things which turn out to be mysteriously symbolic: e.g. a particular moon launch occurs on the anniversary of Hitler's birthday (a date which after all only arises once every year). Quite why NASA would choose a launch date on such a cryptic yet symbolic basis, rather than - say - to do with the relative position of the earth and moon, is not clear; perhaps to send a secret message? To whom, and why? Some NASA announcement occurs three years to the day after JFK's assassination - all very suspicious and symbolic, so clearly is another secret message telling us we're-not-quite-sure-what. After all, the anniversary of JFK's assassination only comes round every year. (Come to think of it, isn't almost every day the anniversary of some more or less important historical event?)
NASA also uses strange symbolism in its official patches for space suits etc - for example, the Apollo program patch has a big letter A on it, secretly denoting (in the mind of Hoagland) not Apollo but Asar, an ancient Egyptian word for Osiris, i.e. the constellation Orion, which has something important to do with Egyptian mythology and hence pyramids and YOU SEE HOW IT ALL MAKES SENSE.
Quite how this book made it to the New York Times bestseller list is a mystery to me, and one rather more disturbing than the contents of this deranged and tedious book.
Intriguing, uncovers many layers of Conspiracy..., 11 Aug 2008
Richard Hoagland was present at JPL in 1969 as the crew of Apollo eleven was on it's way back to Earth. He saw a shady character, accompanied by high ranking NASA officials, distribute leaflets during a press conference stating that the entire moon landing had been faked on a soundstage in Nevada. This, according to Hoagland, was the genesis of the Apollo Conspiracy mythos. Logically this would make the Apollo Conspiracy a Hoax Hoax. Therefore one cannot help wondering what a Hoax Hoax Hoax would be.
Hoagland himself quotes one of his intelligence sources as saying that, "the lie is different at every level". There is no doubt that NASA is concealing something because many of the photographic materials it supplies are obviously tampered with. Hoagland states that NASA (Never A Staight Answer!) is a military organisation rather than as most people think, a civilian one. Therefore they are answerable only to the Pentagon and not to the taxpayer.
Hoagland is committed to the ancient astronauts idea. He believes that the ruins he has detected on the Moon and Mars, are many thousands of years old and probably pre- date human civilization on Earth. He apparently disregards the evidence that humans still interact with with extra- terrestrials. There is no mention in his book of the fact that the Moon, and possibly the entire solar system were created, from basic planetery raw materials, by beings far beyond our technological capacity, beings for whom time means nothing. I believe therefore that everything in our environment is controlled by these entities, whom humans often mistake for Gods.
NASA must have known since it's inception that the moon is artificial, as it's period of orbit is exactly equal to it's period of rotation; also it covers the Sun exactly during solar eclipses. I am convinced that Socrates knew this. I do not agree with Hoagland that there has been only one "time before", there have probably been many; Humankind has reached out to other worlds in the past, and may not actually originate on Earth.
In many of the Apollo photographs of the Moon, Hoagland sees huge glass domes reaching high above the lunar surface, and the remains of supporting rebars, I cannot say that I see this from the reproductions in the book, but there do seem to be atifacts and "arcology" there. Perhaps there are still humans or extra- terrestrials living within the moon, based on it's far side.
Hoagland believes in the notorious "Face on Mars". Of course, if it is truly artificial, then it certainly does not resemble any monolith on Earth, being over a mile in length and apparently honeycombed with rooms and walls; The Face itself is only visible from a high altitude. At the end of the book there are some reproductions of photographs taken by the recent Mars Reconnaissance Orbitor which according to Hoagland reveal an ancient "Headquarters" in The Face. I find it surprising that the orbital photos from Mars appear to be of higher resolution than those from the Moon.
D+ poor effort, must try harder.., 19 Apr 2008
I think the face on mars looks like a collapsed hill, and just a trick of light. The author is obsessed by it. All this astonishing alien artifacts on the moon and mars are present within Richard Hoagland's imagination, and are not present in any of the pictures. What the re-examination of the lunar landing photos probably show is the original hidden background detail of the inside of the studio where they filmed the lunar landings. There's a colour photo of the moon in this book, taken from the Apollo space craft, and according to the author, it's evidence of millions of domes of glass on the moon, as it shows a glow around the moon, which is not possible from space. The more obvious explanation for this is that the photo was taken from a telescope on the earth, and then claimed for the Apollo astronauts.
What is proven in this book is that NASA are habitual liers, and have been covering up something which is far more interesting...evidence of life on mars. What the agenda is, is not explored very well here.
The first chapters about multi-dimentional space is out of the scope for a lay-person and is a stuggle to get through.
What would make for a much better book, by another author, would be an exploration of the mars anomalies, the green-blue sky which NASA have tweeked into red, and fossil evidence on mars. Also an investigation into why NASA are compelled to lie about everything, and why should anyone trust anything they say, including that they went to the moon, when there is so much evidence to show that they didn't, and which Hoagland claims he and his associates have proved to be a false conspiracy, and he hasn't proved it at all. If NASA can fake the colours of mars, why cant they fake the supposed robot head as well, and anything else they feel like?
"Let's go fly a kite..", 08 Mar 2008
"up through the atmosphere, up where the air is clear". Quoting Mary Poppins may be a strange way to begin a review but in my opinion this author has been up where the air is clear (and perhaps a bit too thin) for far too long.
Every single half-baked conspiracy is covered in torturous depth with pictures that (try as I might) failed to convince me there are glass cities on the moon.
If you are a real paranoid X-Files freak, this is the book for you!
Don't waste your money ..., 06 Mar 2008
Possibly the worst book I have bought in many a year ... lets take every rumor ... every half truth ... every little piece of conspiracy theory, sprinkle over some numerology, some masonic interference and present it as a scientific study!
If this is what goes on at NASA then they wouldn't be able to open the doors in the morning never mind put a man on the moon ...
buy only if you have been visited by little green men ... or men in white coats!
A must read - both entertaining and thought provoking., 28 Sep 2008
I've always been interested in NASA and the Space Shuttle. I bought this book and read it in less than a week. It's that good I found it hard to put it down!
Mike Mullane tells us in brutal honestly what it is like to be an astronaut. How the fear of a launch will keep you awake at night but then how you would not miss it for the world. The extremes are all there - from the tradegy of Challenger and Columbia, to the absolute joy of being in Space and looking back down on the Earth. And then there is Mike's sence of humour (of as he calls it - his "arrested development" sence of humour!), which is an absolute joy.
I loved this book from start to finish. It is easy to read even if you have no interest in the space programe. I recommend this to anyone. Fantastic book Mike!
Seat of the pants stuff, 11 Dec 2007
This is probably the best astronaut autobiography I have read with the possible exception of Michael Collin's book. Colonel Mike Mullane was the first generation of the space shuttle astronauts specifically selected to fly on the machine. His book is a no holds bared account of his time before and at NASA and the courage, terror and perhaps foolhardy nature it takes to ride into space on rocket which basically has no effective escape system. Personally I liked all the anecdotes that are scattered throughout the book, I particularly liked the way he described the meeting of two cultures, scientist astronaut and military astronaut. Having served in the infantry and being a scientist I can well appreciate the two would not initially get along. As Colonel Mullane describes he was a product of his environment, Vietnam veteran and survivor of a catholic school. However, the moral of his story and life education is the respect he developed for women who want a career and also people who are prepared to put their life on the line in pursuit of a common goal which is unobtainable to most. This is one of my selected `toilet' books and it is well thumbed companion. Friends who come to stay always get addicted when reading it and basically only emerge when nagged by their wives, who then get addicted to. Well worth the read.
A no holds barred account of 80s NASA, 01 May 2007
I bought this as i wanted to know all about spaceflight and the workings of NASA from someone who had actually been there and i got just that despite the personality of the author.
Mullane recounts his life before NASA, his yearnings for space and then all his time at NASA. His intense enthusiasm for space drives the narrative. He gives a gritty and honest view of what it was like to work at NASA including internal politics and competition for flight places. Specifically his detail on waiting to fly, sitting on the launch pad and being in space was the part i was most excited to read.
However it does come across immediately that Mullane is (and freely admits) a chauvinist, extremely childish and living up to a gung-ho, yee-ha 'Top Gun' stereotype of American fighter pilots. The regular comments and jokes about his other colleagues, pranks and attitude to the world were really tiresome and quite shocking in places. This continues throughout and although doesn't stop this from being a great read is a continual annoyance.
If you are interested in the US Space Program, then read this book., 04 Sep 2006
There are a good number of astronaut biographies available. Inevitably there is fair amount of repetition sometimes straying towards telling you what SHOULD have happened rather than what DID happen. But Mike's book is different. This is the story of what it's all about being an astronaut: nuts and bolts, human weaknesses, bureaucracy, chauvanism, fear, elation, reality. But above all the need to fly into space. If you were to read only one astronaut biography, then this should be it.
the Bill Bryson of space travel, 03 May 2006
I've been waiting for this book since I was a kid watching the first landing on the Moon on TV. It is something completely different from what I read till now on the spacce project. To say that Mike Mullane is the Bill Bryson of space travel is to underestimate him. You will not only appreciate the story, the inside view on the US space program (including the permanent mismanagement). You will also learn about a real dream love: the one with his wife, Donna. What is really outstanding in Mike is the chase for the "ultimate honesty". He constantly refuse the "politically correct" approach and goes straigth to the core of our relations to space travels, dreams, technology, relation with... women, with our boss and with... the girl of our dream, in this case another Astronaut tragically dead in the Challenger accident. The last pages in particular are surprisingly good and poetic. I would never expect something like that.
Thanks, Mike, for your honesty.
Really good introdution, 21 Jul 2003
This book is aq really good introdution to the life in the oceans. I recently used this book for a module in my Oceanography degree and it was really helpful. I also recommend this book for Marine Biologists as well.
OK in some respects flawed in others, 01 Jul 2008
As another reviewer has said this is hardly a 'Master' handbook but it does have some useful and interesting things to say to the beginner. What is most disappointing is that a textbook on acoustics, printed in 2001 (the date of this edition) stills uses imperial measurements! Anywhere that distance is discussed it is given in feet and inches. This is the 21st century right? A pretty lazy attempt at updating this text.
Fantastic, 13 Jan 2004
At over 600 pages, you certainly get your money's worth with this book. It is replete with information on the design of acoutical spaces, noise isolation, reverb time, control of room resonances, room modelling and numerous other related topics. I bought this book to gain a better understanding of acoustics for the design of a home studio and it certainly paid off. It will take you a while to get through this book, but you'll be able to amaze your friends (or bore them) with your in depth understanding of acoustics. Highly recommended.
Not a Masters' book but a good place to start., 19 Jan 2002
This book is very well explained but lacks that which some may hope for from a book entitled 'The Master Handbook of Acoustics'.
If you are an 'acoustic enthusiast' and a knowledge of acoustic concepts is important to you, then, this would be worth buying - maybe an undergraduate physics/engineering student might also benefit from its approach.
However, if you are someone that wishes to go beyond, getting to the heart of problems like; noise/vibration control and acoustics, you should go for something like Frank Fahy's Engineering Acoustics, Kinsler and Frey, or, if you are up to it!, Pierce...
Outstanding!!!!!, 04 Aug 1999
To say that the Master Handbook of Acoustics is an 'incredibly comprehensive work' it's like saying that the Beatles were 'some band from Liverpool'. Without a doubt, a must-have. Better than that, buy two and enlighten a friend! :-) Now really, this is the absolute definitive book on acoustics, covering topics ranging from sound propagation to room acoustics to absortion, diffusion, refraction, reflection, diffraction and everything else you can think of.
Perfect for anyone looking to upgrade their acoustics palet, 08 Aug 1998
This book can be a tremendous asset to anyone interested in cleaning up their audio listening invironment. It would be difficult to imagine myself not having this book around now with all the wealth of information it possesses. Highly recomended.
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Customer Reviews
Solid science and thoroughly enjoyable, 28 Oct 2008
Phil Plait once again manages to convey a hefty dose of solid scientific knowledge in an entertaining and real page-turner fashion. Covering pretty much every sci-fi end-of-the-world threat from outer space he educates and entertains with stories of supernovae, black holes, gamma bursts and the like.
Along with the scientific explanations there is a common thread of pragmatic risk appraisal without the usual sensationalism. Even the benefits of many of the risks are discussed, such as the generation of heavier elements by supernovae.
Death from the Skies is both enjoyable and educational, and you are unlikely to be disappointed. Much more than Quick Mastering Tips, 05 Jul 2007
I must say I found this book an excellent read. I'm currently self producing an album of some of my songs and got this book in the hope that I'd get some quick tips to try and do a half decent master of the mixes. What it actually did was make me go back to the mixes and question the decisions I'd made to get there.
The author's technical knowledge is extremely high and has definitely given me a clearer understanding of the scope and limitations of the gear at my disposal. More important though is his insistance on not always using processing as a crutch and encouraging you to LISTEN before and after plugging in the standard fallback eq/compressor. I found it refreshing that he focused on music as an art and insisted that within all the requisite science of audio production you should never lose sight of the musical line of the recording your producing.
In a way this book has been temporarily counter productive for me as rather than giving me quick fixes for the last step in production its set me back a few stages to reflect. Hopefully though this will lead to a better, more transparent final product. I suspect that, as a long serving mastering engineer, this is more than a little of the author's intention. As he states several times a good mix is the key to a great master. I think the truly intended sense of this book's title is, therefore, a more all encompassing Mastering the Art and Science of Audio. A must buy, 14 Dec 2006
If your serious about music and want to really produce some excellent sounds you must buy this book.
Professional or home studio, dance music or band producer this is where to get ahead. One of the few authoritative books about audio, 27 Aug 2004
The world of audio is full of stupid explanations for largely misunderstood problems. People seem to suffer paranormal phenomena with audio, and there are people who claim that a green marker can enhance the sound of a CD! This book is a welcome exception to that. It does a wonderful job describing (as the title states) the art *and* the science of mastering. The explanations of digital audio problems are scientific and rigurous, without a single exception. And the author knows his job indeed; he isn't the typical person obsessed with gear. He deeply understands how the different processors work, and the different issues with them. Following his recommendations, my editions are now much better. Moreover, the author is a member of the very small group of talented technical writers. The book is even fun to read, written in a lively style, and very interesting.
Detailed Mastering Bible, 31 Jan 2004
The degree in which the author masters the audio & digital domains is truly amazing. It goes down to the lowest physical level and lets you understand _why_ things behave as they behave, instead of just giving you a list of what not to do. This, together with invaluable examples from his more than impressive 32 years of experience in the field, makes this book more vital to your work than various pieces of expensive equipment.
So, all in all, 5 out of 5. If you are a sound engineer and you haven't bought this book yet, buy it now (or wait a little - a revision is in the pipeline for 2007!) :-)
The best book on mastering., 10 Jan 2004
If you are thinking of buying a book on the topic of mastering, then this should be it. It contains explanations of the principals and processes involved in mastering along with excellent technical explanations. If you are interested in mastering audio, whether at beginner, intermediate or expert level then you will learn something from this book. It's set out nicely and is interesting throughout. You'll soon be turning good sounding tracks into great sounding ones!
A loon writes..., 02 Nov 2008
I've read many books about UFOs and the like, and have considerable sympathy for the subject. This, however, is a rather embarrassing example of lunatic fringe meets conspiracy theory.
The main author, one Richard Hoagland, writes of himself in the third person throughout, as if giving a gloss of objectivity, yet it is a self-serving document, recounting the history of his brilliant ideas and his lame, biased or malign detractors, peppered with overuse of italics and shudder quotes in case you don't get the message.
But it is the wild extrapolations from extremely flimsy evidence that make this book just embarrassing and annoying to read. For Hoagland, blurry photographs of the Moon or Mars are a kind of Rorschach inkblot test: to his eye, ordinary rocks are 'mechanical debris' from some advanced but now-extinct interplanetary civilization. A rock with two dents in it is a 'robot's head' (and I suspect that a significant proportion of rocks look more like a robot's head than the example we are given). Mountains are 'pyramids'; a blurry row of rocks is a 'sphinx'. Inevitably, the not particularly face-like 'Face on Mars' gets much attention. These objects are rather more irregular than an advanced civilization ought to be able to produce - actually they look just like rocks and mountains - but this of course is explained by 'erosion' (even though no erosion takes place on the moon, not having an atmosphere or surface water).
Add to this a heavy dose of unconvincing geometry: draw enough straight lines on a photograph and you find some of them seem to connect these mysterious objects - or rather, they do if you draw enough lines and make enough use of wiggle room, such as saying a line connects to an object when actually it goes a bit to the side. (Ley lines, anyone?)
Then measure the angles produced, and with a bit more jiggling you can come up with something close to numbers that don't have any mathematical significance, like, say, e/pi, or e/root 5 - but why not more obvious constants like e or 5? Well, we are told, this is obviously an alien 'message' about hyperdimensional physics which tells us that the planets all contain a fourth-dimensional spinning pyramid or something...
Other photographs of the moon landings have even more bizarre interpretations: anything looking like a scratch on the negative is actually a 'buttress' supporting one of many giant glass domes over craters; these domes are naturally invisible in the photos (being made of glass), but hey, they're obviously there, aren't they? (Hoagland's inability to get any scientific journals to publish such results are naturally all part of the conspiracy.)
But wait, there are more dots to be connected. It's all something to do with not only the Masons, but also the Nazis (I kid you not). As shown by all kinds of things which turn out to be mysteriously symbolic: e.g. a particular moon launch occurs on the anniversary of Hitler's birthday (a date which after all only arises once every year). Quite why NASA would choose a launch date on such a cryptic yet symbolic basis, rather than - say - to do with the relative position of the earth and moon, is not clear; perhaps to send a secret message? To whom, and why? Some NASA announcement occurs three years to the day after JFK's assassination - all very suspicious and symbolic, so clearly is another secret message telling us we're-not-quite-sure-what. After all, the anniversary of JFK's assassination only comes round every year. (Come to think of it, isn't almost every day the anniversary of some more or less important historical event?)
NASA also uses strange symbolism in its official patches for space suits etc - for example, the Apollo program patch has a big letter A on it, secretly denoting (in the mind of Hoagland) not Apollo but Asar, an ancient Egyptian word for Osiris, i.e. the constellation Orion, which has something important to do with Egyptian mythology and hence pyramids and YOU SEE HOW IT ALL MAKES SENSE.
Quite how this book made it to the New York Times bestseller list is a mystery to me, and one rather more disturbing than the contents of this deranged and tedious book.
Intriguing, uncovers many layers of Conspiracy..., 11 Aug 2008
Richard Hoagland was present at JPL in 1969 as the crew of Apollo eleven was on it's way back to Earth. He saw a shady character, accompanied by high ranking NASA officials, distribute leaflets during a press conference stating that the entire moon landing had been faked on a soundstage in Nevada. This, according to Hoagland, was the genesis of the Apollo Conspiracy mythos. Logically this would make the Apollo Conspiracy a Hoax Hoax. Therefore one cannot help wondering what a Hoax Hoax Hoax would be.
Hoagland himself quotes one of his intelligence sources as saying that, "the lie is different at every level". There is no doubt that NASA is concealing something because many of the photographic materials it supplies are obviously tampered with. Hoagland states that NASA (Never A Staight Answer!) is a military organisation rather than as most people think, a civilian one. Therefore they are answerable only to the Pentagon and not to the taxpayer.
Hoagland is committed to th | | |