Candid Science III: More Converstations With Famous Chemists

Book Description

In this invaluable book, 36 famous chemists, including 18 Nobel laureates, tell the reader about their lives in science, the beginnings of their careers, their aspirations, and their hardships and triumphs. The reader will learn about their seminal discoveries, and the conversations in the book bring out the humanity of these great scientists. Highlighted in the stories are the discovery of new elements and compounds, the VSEPR model, computational chemistry, organic synthesis, natural products, polysaccharides, supramolecular chemistry, peptide synthesis, combinatorial chemistry, X-ray crystallography, the reaction mechanism and kinetics, electron transfer in small and large systems, non-equilibrium systems, oscillating reactions, atmospheric chemistry, chirality, and the history of chemistry.

Customer Reviews:

Voices crying in the wilderness.......2001-12-20

It is a pity this work is out of print, for it is, along with Soren Lovtrup's Darwinism: Refutation of a Myth, one of the best critiques of Darwinian theory by a professional in the field. Now that the developmental tradition is resurfacing in the age of the genome, these clear warnings of the difficulties of theory are useful for putting the issues of evolution in perspective without the confusions of more popular anti-Darwin tracts. The book also contains invaluable historical commentary on many aspects of the shadow history of Darwinism.

Evolutionary Theory: the Unfinished Synthesis

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Evolutionary Theory: the Unfinished Synthesis

ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Evolution | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0709922825

Book Description

Around the world and for hundreds of years, men and women have refused to be drafted into bearing arms for their nations' wars. These conscientious objectors to the draft are the subject of Peter Brock's latest collection, Against the Draft. Brock, the world's leading historian on pacifism, has assembled twenty-five of his essays on conscientious objection to the draft from the beginning of the Radical Reformation in 1525 to the end of the Second World War.

Included in the collection are essays on little known facets of the anti-draft movement including the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition of military exemption that started with the outset of the Radical Reformation in 1525 and has continued, with variations, until the present. Further articles deal with the Quakers in a number of countries, Civil-war America, Leo Tolstoy (who became a convinced pacifist in the later part of his life,) British conscientious objectors in the Non-Combatant Corps, the emergence of conscientious objection in Japan, and the fate of conscientious objectors in the psychiatric clinics of Germany and in interwar Poland. Essays on the Central European Nazerenes and on Jehovah's Witnesses in Nazi Germany highlight the exceptionally harsh treatment meted out to conscientious objectors belonging to these two sects, and their steadfast resistance to the state's demand to bear arms. Against the Draft makes an important contribution to the growing study of pacifism and conscientious objection, and represents a key work in the career of the field's foremost scholar.

Free to Die for Their Country: The Story of the Japanese American Draft Resisters in World War II (Chicago Series in Law and Society)

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Loyalty and patrotism redefined
Julius Streicher and Joseph Goebbels would be proud!
When your country asks too much of you:
Honoring their resistance preserves our freedoms
Excellent contrib to Amer. history and profiles of courage

Free to Die for Their Country: The Story of the Japanese American Draft Resisters in World War II (Chicago Series in Law and Society)
Eric L. Muller
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Japan | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
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ASIN: 0226548236

Book Description

One of the Washington Post's Top Nonfiction Titles of 2001

In the spring of 1942, the federal government forced West Coast Japanese Americans into detainment camps on suspicion of disloyalty. Two years later, the government demanded even more, drafting them into the same military that had been guarding them as subversives. Most of these Americans complied, but Free to Die for Their Country is the first book to tell the powerful story of those who refused. Based on years of research and personal interviews, Eric L. Muller re-creates the emotions and events that followed the arrival of those draft notices, revealing a dark and complex chapter of America's history.

Customer Reviews:

Loyalty and patrotism redefined.......2007-04-14

This book is typical of the many modern historical re-interpretations of the evacuation and relocation of the people of Japanese ancestry during WWII.

Prominent features among these writers is that the centers were prisons, surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards with guns pointed at the inhabitants who were living under horrendously grim conditions of "incarceration" only because they happened to be of the Japanese race. Muller states their plight "among this country's most shameful and egregious human rights violations."

The main premises of the book are as follows:

1. The Nisei draft resisters were just as "patriotic and courageous" as their fellow Nisei among the 100th and 442nd who died or were wounded.

2. The Japanese American Citizens League was against these resisters when they should have supported them. The JACL has since supposedly accepted them.

3. The resisters proved the inconsistency -- indeed, the injustice -- of the US Government's policy regarding their evacuation and relocation.

4. The loyalty questionnaire was unnecessary and therefore harmed relationships and caused divisions.

5. The US Govt. and WRA were wrong to draft the Nisei who were "imprisoned" in "internment camps."

6. The resisters may have been right, they may have been wrong. At any rate, everyone needs to be OK about it and no more hard feelings, please.

If you are a member of or a veteran of the US armed forces, this book will definitely anger you. No doubt it has angered many Japanese Americans.

Julius Streicher and Joseph Goebbels would be proud!.......2005-07-14

What do you expect Muller to write? He's being funded by the Japanese-American reparations movement!

California Civil Liberties Public Education Program Announces Grant Recipients for Fiscal Year 1999-2000

Dr. Eric L. Muller
Chapel Hill, North Carolina

"LOYAL PROTEST: JAPANESE AMERICAN DRAFT RESISTERS IN THE FEDERAL COURTS"

This project has two related components: (1) the completion of a book chronicling the experience of the Nisei draft resisters of World War II and their encounters with the federal criminal justice system, and (2) a public lecture tour in California to share the results of the research on the Nisei draft resisters with interested organizations and groups in California.

Fiscal Year 2003-2004 CCLPEP GRANT RECIPIENTS

Eric Muller
University of North Carolina School of Law
Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Project Name: Judgments Judged and Wrongs Remembered: Examining the Japanese American Civil Liberties Cases of World War II on Their 60th Anniversary

When confronted with the serious conflict of interest Muller was aghast and denied ever receving any money.

When caught in the big lie this is how Muller rationalizes his less than scholarly conduct:

Bob asked me specifically whether I'd ever received money from the Civil Liberties Public Education Fund ("CLPEF").

That was a *federal* program that terminated several years ago. I said I had not, which is true. What Bob did *not* ask me was whether I had ever received grant money from the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program (CCLPEP), a *state*-funded program in California which came into existence after CLPEF terminated, and is still part of the California budget.

The answer to that is, of course, that I have received two grants from CLPEP. Bob is now crowing that I lied in denying receipt of grant money from CLPEF. But I didn't receive grant money from CLPEF. Bob asked the wrong question, you see, and I answered the question he asked rather than the one he thinks he asked.

To which I responded:

Technically, Eric is right. My initial question did not differentiate between the CLPEF and the CCLPEF.

I pointedly asked if he had accepted funds and he denied it. The funds regardless of state or federal taxpayer dollars is irrelevant. Eric was given the opportunity to come clean on his financing and he chose the sleazy denial.

"Fatal blunder"...what a joke!

How can a scholar be unbiased in his work when receiving money from an ethnic grievance group that seeks to promote an unbalanced, biased version of an historical event?

Oh that's right. Muller's not an historian, he's a lawyer...

When your country asks too much of you:.......2004-10-22

I heard about this book in a seminar in Seattle on Japanese-American internees during WWII. I immediately wanted to get it. Some hint about Japanese-American CO's, who were imprisoned just near Seattle, along with Quakers? I had to find out!

This is a well researched book, copious footnotes, with extensive primary and secondary sources. Better yet, Muller is a good author. Don't always get that with a good research non-fiction work. He had me interested, wanting to find out more, hating to put the book down. Muller doesn't simply come off as a bleeding-heart- he dispassionately relates the experiences of the Japanese-Americans, and critiques their actions, with both positive and negative assessments. Yet he manages to bring out in the end how atrocious the actions were of our government- to take people, strip them of their rights, deny them their basic rights as citizens, and then call them to kill others, on the basis that they *are* citizens. He tells the story of how they came to be in the camps, how the decisions were made to put them in the draft (assisted greatly by the JACO, 2nd generation Japanese who were willing to sell out their own people in order to gain more respect from the American government), how and why some chose to resist, and the long struggle that came from the results of those actions, leading up to the present day.

There was one most excellent quote in the book. One judge, after the internment camps are disbanded, writes how the constitution should guarantee basic rights to everyone in our land- regardless of if they are citizens or not. The parallels between the experiences of the Japanese-Americans in WWII and those of another ethnicity today are chilling.

Honoring their resistance preserves our freedoms.......2002-12-07

The Japanese American draft resisters responded to Pearl Harbor not with an ultra-nationalism for the America that had treated them and their families so unjustly, but with a principled insistence on America's higher ideals. By vindicating that choice, Professor Muller's work helps to preserve for all of us the same choice of responses in the wake of 9/11. For many Americans, especially Asian Americans and Arab Americans, waving the flag today combines and conflates a message of patriotism with a historically well-founded fear that we will be counted as less than fully American when America, the one and only nation we love and call home, faces a time of crisis. In the face of these conflated meanings, it is only with a free conscience that an American can ever hope to invest a choice to dedicate his life to his country with the meaning he intends. The resisters remind us that in a time of national crisis, the freedom of conscience is the most precious freedom of all.

Excellent contrib to Amer. history and profiles of courage.......2002-03-24

We know about the 120,000 Americans of Japanese heritage who were imprisoned and interned in ten concentration camps in the USA during WWII "By Order of President" Roosevelt and the Army, in places like Tule Lake, Heart Mountain, and Minidoka. We know about the young men, the Nisei, who served their country with distinction in the 100th Battalion and 442nd regimental combat team in Italy and Europe, while their families were stripped of their civil rights and property. But what about those young men who resisted their draft order since they had no civil rights? What of those who were imprisoned and never pardoned after the war? In hindsight, weren't they just as courageous? What about the courage of Federal Judge Louis Goodman? The author of this book, himself the son of a refugee, the grandson of a man who was sent briefly to Buchenwald from Frankfurt, and was tagged an enemy alien in the USA, has written this excellent, well researched book that will be an excellent resource to students of U.S. history and the fight for civil liberties.

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Secong Drafts of History

Second Drafts Of History
Lance Morrow
Manufacturer: Basic Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

General | Essays | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0465047505

Book Description

The best writing of award-winning journalist Lance Morrow, called "the master of the think piece" (Washington Post Book World) and "one of America's best essayists" (National Review)

In his forty years as a working journalist and essayist for Time and other magazines, Lance Morrow has developed a sterling reputation as one of the most thoughtful and insightful of contemporary writers. Here is a selection of his best essays from recent years, drawn from Time, Civilization, his online writing, and other venues. In sparkling prose, he explores topics as varied as the joys of reading ("A Refuge for Insomniacs"), the grim reality of a visit to Sarajevo ("The Ruin of a Cat, The Ghost of a Dog"), and the lighter side of his high-school education under the Jesuits ("Fifteen Cheers for Abstinence"). In other essays, he relates his encounters with the ghost that haunted his house in rural New York and offers a sparkling tribute to the wit and legacy of Bugs Bunny animator Chuck Jones.

Here, too, are his closely observed examinations of our globalized world: a wry observation on why tourists eventually destroy every place they visit ("I Came, I Saw, I Ruined Everything") and the impassioned, controversial essay that he wrote for Time on the afternoon of September 11 that won him his second National Magazine Award. Second Drafts of History presents one of America's finest writers at the top of his game.

Customer Reviews:

Secong Drafts of History.......2006-03-13

The absolute best in contemporary essay writing. It will make you a fan of essays and improve your imagination!

The Second Rebellion: The Story of the New York City Draft Riots of 1863.

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The Second Rebellion: The Story of the New York City Draft Riots of 1863.
James. McCague
Manufacturer: DoubleDay
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Canada's Greatest Wartime Muddle: National Selective Service and the Mobilization of Human Resources During World War II

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Canada's Greatest Wartime Muddle: National Selective Service and the Mobilization of Human Resources During World War II
Michael D. Stevenson
Manufacturer: McGill-Queen's University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books

Strategy | Military | History | Subjects | Books

Canada | Military | History | Subjects | Books

The Draft, 1940-1973 (Modern War Studies)

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The Draft, 1940-1973 (Modern War Studies)
George Q. Flynn
Manufacturer: Univ Pr of Kansas
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Intelligence & Espionage | Military | History | Subjects | Books

Life & Institutions | Military | History | Subjects | Books

Military Science | History | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 070060586X

Book Description

Individual liberty is ingrained in American culture. Yet, in contrast to this cherished ideal, American men were inducted into military service under a system that flourished for more than twenty years before its rationalization was seriously questioned by more than a small minority of citizens.

Analyzing this paradox, George Flynn provides the first comprehensive look at an institution that managed to sustain political and public favor through two wars before dying out under a barrage of protests during a third. Placing the American draft within a historical context, he shows how social and political considerations determined the character of conscription in the United States.

The draft developed as it did, he argues, not mainly because of military needs or strategy, but because of political decisions initiated by civilians with nonmilitary agendas. Explaining why the draft remained relatively immune to political criticism prior to the Vietnam conflict, Flynn chronicles the draft's military and strategic successes and failures in America's mid-century wars. He shows how major institutions and lobbies representing science, education, and various professions and religions influenced it and how, ultimately and ironically, the selective character of the draft eventually made the system inequitable and helped cause its downfall.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Columbia Journalism Review, published by Thomson Gale on September 1, 2007. The length of the article is 3011 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The second draft of history: where newspapers fall short, news books continue to succeed.(ESSAY)(Essay)
Author: Elisabeth Sifton
Publication: Columbia Journalism Review (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 46 Issue: 3 Page: 54(4)

Article Type: Essay

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Easley-Rooker family history: Second draft

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Easley-Rooker family history: Second draft
J. F Easley
Manufacturer: J.F. Easley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B00071L27M

Book Description

A masterful blending of Christian scholarship and pure thrilling adventure, comes a novel about the race to find the secret location of the Vera Cruz, the True Cross on which Christ was crucified, and the ancient brotherhood sworn to protect it from Infidel hands.

Holy relics are disappearing from sacred spots around the world -- and the Vatican will do whatever it takes to stop thieves from their incredible goal; to steal what is left of the scattered and miniscule splinters of the True Cross the Catholic Church has in its possession.

Dr. Ottavia Salina, a brilliant and highly esteemed paleographer toils away at her classified workspace deep within Vatican City, analyzing and restoring some of the world's most valuable religious artifacts, until she is called upon by the highest levels of the Roman Catholic Church and charged with a mysterious new assignment: she is to decipher the strange tattoos -- seven Greek letters and seven crosses -- found on an Ethiopian man's corpse. Found next to what was left of the body were three pieces of wood -- suspected by Vatican scholars to be fragments of the Vera Cruz, actual splinters from the Cross on which Christ was crucified.

With the help of the captain of the Pope's infamous and tradition-rich Swiss Guard and a renown archaeologist from the ancient city of Alexandria, Dr. Salina is able to uncover a shocking truth: for hundreds of years, a secret brotherhood which refers to itself as the Staurofilakes, and headed by a mysterious figure called Cato, has been hiding the True Cross and means to gather all remaining fragments for themselves. The markings on the Ethiopian corpse, they soon discover, correspond with each of the Seven Deadly Sins, and are part of the complicated, possibly deadly, initiation ritual used to deem candidates worthy of membership into the brotherhood.

Having discovered a connection between the brotherhood and Dante's Divine Comedy, they use clues within the text as a roadmap which leads them on a race across the globe to Christianity's ancient capitals. As they travel from Rome to Antioch, with several harrowing stops in between, they must brave a series of unimaginable challenges that put their faith -- and their very lives -- to the ultimate test. If they are to uncover the secrets of the ancient brotherhood, and discover the location of the True Cross, they must do so at their own peril.

Customer Reviews:

Entertaining but too drawn out.......2007-09-06

I enjoyed the book even though I found it too long. However, the plot was interesting enough to keep me going through the too-detailed explanations of Dante's "Divine Comedy" which served as the guide for the quest the characters are completing. Although somewhat complex and predictably contrived it was a good story.

Character development was good for the novel's narrator Ottavia, but less so for supporting characters Farag and the Captain.

I would recommend it to people who enjoy this type of story.

NOTE: I read the book in Spanish, so I cannot attest to the quality of the transalation.

Rip-roaring ride - pity though about the quality of the translation........2007-08-21

There is nothing wrong with this as a story - its got all the right ingredients and all the right characters to keep a reader eager to get to the climax. I only wish I knew Spanish so that I could have read this in its original language. The English translation is painful at times. As a professional translator myself, I know the pitfalls. Just because a word or phrase is a perfect translation for the original doesn't mean that it can be used in any situation. In some places I found myself going 'Huh?' as the tone of the second half of a sentence was completely different to that of the first half. Still, translating a novel is never easy and, hopefully, the translator will have learnt from this effort.

Poor Translation.......2007-07-06

The person who translated this work into English did a horrendous job, especially with proper names. For example, the basilica of St. John Lateran became St. John of Letran, and the medieval Dominican Giacopo da Voragine became Santiago of the Whirlpool. As a professional historian who used to live in Italy, I found these especially off-putting. The main character, a Sicilian nun with various PhDs, would have known better, such as that Voragine was not a whirlpool but the town where Giacopo was born. Also, the translator has taken idomatic phrases and translated them literally so that they have no sensible meaning in English. What was a delightful novel in the original language has been ruined by poor translation and poor editing.

First Leonardo, now Dante.......2007-06-25

If you like a book that moves you along very quickly so that you don't see the gaping holes in the plot, or its essential silliness, this is a book for you. I enjoyed it, even though I thought that the main plot was absolutely ridiculous, and the actions taken by the protagonists unexplainable by any rational person. Toward the end, the book became even more ridiculous, with underground chambers, artificial light, and a somewhat utopian society dedicated to the preservation of the True Cross. That being said, this is a good book to read at the beach (which is what I did) because it will pass the time in a fairly pleasant way. Don't take the plot too seriously (or at all), and you'll have a good time reading this book.

A Great Read.......2007-06-12

This was a wonderful read. And what a shocker of an ending. Surprised indeed. I will have to say that the childish love games in the middle tended to grow old after awhile but then they got away from that and life was good. I HIGHLY recommend this book.

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The Last Cato : A Novel
Matilde Asensi
Manufacturer: Rayo
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OEYUXU

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The Last Cato : A Novel
Matilde Asensi
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000J1BFPO

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