Dennis D. McDonald (ddmcd@ddmcd.com)consults from Alexandria Virginia. His services include writing & research, proposal development, and project management.
The public sale of the mechanically printed Bible and its positive reception was the outcome of many years of experimentation, hard work, political intrigue, religious subversion, even imprisonment.
Science can be a noble pursuit but the humans who “do” science are subject to the same hopes, fears, and dreams as the rest of us. Understanding something about how this is all done is one more step in understanding what separates humans from other life forms.
As the old saying goes, power corrupts. In this book we see how all can become ensnared by its tendrils, even those who like Cicero profess to aspire to higher ideals.
This short Kindle book, divided into two parts, provides just enough information to help the reader understand where Galileo and Newton stand in the evolution of Western scientific thought and practice.
As a lifelong fan of historic aircraft, reading details of how and where the B-17s, the B-24s, and P-51s were developed and manufactured provides a useful insight into what “mobilization of the homefront” meant.
COMING HOME is another well-illustrated NASA e-book containing much detail about an important topic of aerospace history. This time the subject is the safe return of space vehicles to earth.
Did Kelly Johnson and the people at Lockheed, the CIA, and the U.S. Air Force realize they were developing a “platform” whose utility would extend over decades? Probably not. Aeronautical history of the time is littered with failed jets and engines designs. Survivors are few and the U-2 stands out.
A lot of this book makes for unpleasant reading but it is an important record of the times, told by the author from an older and wiser perspective. He is lucky to have survived.