Book picks similar to
Roswell: Inconvenient Facts and the Will to Believe by Karl T. Pflock
ufos
non-fiction
history
coffee-table-books
The Pacific Northwest: An Interpretive History (Revised and Enlarged Edition)
Carlos A. Schwantes - 1989
This edition contains significant additional material on early mining in the Pacific Northwest, sea routes to Oregon in the early discovery and contact period, the environment of the region, the impact of the Klondike gold rush, and politics since 1945. Recent environmental controversies, such as endangered salmon runs and the spotted owl dispute, have been addressed, as has the effect of the Cold War on the region’s economy. The author has also expanded discussion of the roles of women and minorities and updated statistical information.
Seeing and Believing: How the Telescope Opened Our Eyes and Minds to the Heavens
Richard Panek - 1998
A concise look at the impact of the advent of the telescope on the way humans view the universe and their place in it focuses on the visionaries, beginning with Galileo, who created and perfected it.
The Ancient Giants Who Ruled America: The Missing Skeletons and the Great Smithsonian Cover-Up
Richard J. Dewhurst - 2013
Dewhurst reveals not only that North America was once ruled by an advanced race of giants but also that the Smithsonian has been actively suppressing the physical evidence for nearly 150 years. He shows how thousands of giant skeletons have been unearthed at Mound Builder sites across the continent, only to disappear from the historical record. He examines other concealed giant discoveries, such as the giant mummies found in Spirit Cave, Nevada, wrapped in fine textiles and dating to 8000 BCE; the hundreds of red-haired bog mummies found at sinkhole “cenotes” on the west coast of Florida and dating to 7500 BCE; and the ruins of the giants’ cities with populations in excess of 100,000 in Arizona, Oklahoma, Alabama, and Louisiana. Dewhurst shows how this suppression began shortly after the Civil War and transformed into an outright cover-up in 1879 when Major John Wesley Powell was appointed Smithsonian director, launching a strict pro-evolution, pro-Manifest Destiny agenda. He also reveals the 1920s’ discovery on Catalina Island of a megalithic burial complex with 6,000 years of continuous burials and over 4,000 skeletons, including a succession of kings and queens, some more than 9 feet tall--the evidence for which is hidden in the restricted-access evidence rooms at the Smithsonian.
Fire in the Sky: The Walton Experience
Travis Walton - 1978
One of them, Travis Walton, recklessly left the safety of their truck to take a closer look. Suddenly, as he walked toward the light, Walton was blasted back by a bolt of mysterious energy. His companions fled in fear. When they reported an encounter with a UFO--something they would have considered impossible if they had not witnessed it themselves--the men were suspected of murder. For five days authorities mounted a massive manhunt in search of Walton or his body. Then Walton reappeared, disoriented & initially unable to tell the whole story of his terrifying encounter. In Fire in the Sky Travis Walton relates in his own words the best documented account of alien abduction yet recorded, the story of his harrowing ordeal at the hands of silent captors & his return to a disbelieving world of hostile interrogators, exploitative press & self-styled debunkers. Travis recounts the struggle to get a fair hearing & confronts his detractors with a stinging rebuttal.
The Science of the Dogon: Decoding the African Mystery Tradition
Laird Scranton - 2002
The Dogon’s creation story describes how the one true god, Amma, created all the matter of the universe. Interestingly, the myths that depict his creative efforts bear a striking resemblance to the modern scientific definitions of matter, beginning with the atom and continuing all the way to the vibrating threads of string theory. Furthermore, many of the Dogon words, symbols, and rituals used to describe the structure of matter are quite similar to those found in the myths of ancient Egypt and in the daily rituals of Judaism. For example, the modern scientific depiction of the informed universe as a black hole is identical to Amma’s Egg of the Dogon and the Egyptian Benben Stone. The Science of the Dogon offers a case-by-case comparison of Dogon descriptions and drawings to corresponding scientific definitions and diagrams from authors like Stephen Hawking and Brian Greene, then extends this analysis to the counterparts of these symbols in both the ancient Egyptian and Hebrew religions. What is ultimately revealed is the scientific basis for the language of the Egyptian hieroglyphs, which was deliberately encoded to prevent the knowledge of these concepts from falling into the hands of all but the highest members of the Egyptian priesthood. The Science of the Dogon also offers compelling new interpretations for many of the most familiar Egyptian symbols, such as the pyramid and the scarab, and presents new explanations for the origins of religiously charged words such as Jehovah and Satan.
Takashi Murakami
Takashi Murakami - 2007
Drawing from street culture, high art, and traditional Japanese painting, Murakami takes the contemporary art trend of mixing high and low to an unprecedented level (critics call him the new Warhol), producing original paintings and sculptures as well as mass-produced consumer objects such as toys, books, and most famously, a line of handbags for Louis Vuitton. A committed supporter and spokesperson for Japanese artists and a powerful commentator on postwar culture and society, Murakami has organized influential exhibitions of Japanese art as well as a biannual art fair in Tokyo. Murakami has positioned himself as a new type of artist for the twenty-first century: a hybrid of creator, entrepreneur, and cultural ambassador.In conjunction with the first major retrospective of his work, Murakami traces Murakami’s global impact socially, culturally, and art historically. Essays focus on Murakami’s early works, which were based on a social critique of Japan’s rampant consumerism; the development of his characters; his work with anime, fantasy; otaku culture; and his engagement with global pop culture. Representing output from original works of art to mass-produced multiples, the catalogue also considers the implications of Murakami’s working methods within the tradition of the Western avant-garde.
Profiling Violent Crimes: An Investigative Tool
Ronald M. Holmes - 1989
New chapters cover criminal behavior theories and psychological profiling; autoerotic deaths, and occult crimes, plus two new chapters detailing infamous unsolved crimes/criminals: Jack the Ripper and the Jon Benet Ramsey case. The authors′ continuing research and activities in the field result in a multitude of new case studies for this book, often included as boxed inserts.
Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist John Whiteside Parsons
George Pendle - 2005
ROCKET SCIENTIST KILLED IN PASADENA EXPLOSIONscreamed the headline of the Los Angeles Times. John Parsons, a maverick rocketeer who helped transform the rocket from a derided sci-fi plot line into a reality, was at first mourned as a scientific prodigy. But reporters soon uncovered a more shocking story: Parsons had been a devotee of black magic. George Pendle re-creates the world of John Parsons in this dazzling portrait of prewar superstition, cold war paranoia, and futuristic possibility. Fueled by childhood dreams of space flight, Parsons was a leader of the motley band of enthusiastic young men who founded the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a cornerstone of the American space program. But Parsons's wild imagination also led him into the occult- for if he could make rocketry a reality, why not magic? With a cast of characters including Howard Hughes, L. Ron Hubbard, and Robert Heinlein, Strange Angel explores the unruly consequences of genius.
Flying to the Limit: Testing World War II Single-Engined Fighter Aircraft
Peter Caygill - 2005
During the lend-lease agreement with the USA, the RAF and Fleet Air Arm operated several American designs, each of which was tested to evaluate its potential.This book looks at the key area of fighter aircraft and includes the test results and pilot's own first-hand accounts of flying seventeen different models, designed in the UK, America and Germany. The reader will learn of the possibilities of air superiority offered by these types and also their weaknesses. Types included are The Hawker Hurricane, Supermarine Spitfire, Boulton Paul Defiant, Hawker Tempest and Typhoon, Bell Airacobra, Messerschmitt Bf 109, Focke-Wulf Fw 190, Brewster Buffalo, Curtiss Tomahawk, North American Mustang, Grumman Martlet, Republic Thunderbolt, and Vought Corsair. All aircraft that saw a great deal of action throughout the War and which are now part of legend.
Hoover Dam: An American Adventure
Joseph E. Stevens - 1988
Through the worst years of the Great Depression as many as five thousand laborers toiled twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, to erect the huge structure that would harness the Colorado River and transform the American West.Construction of the giant dam was a triumph of human ingenuity, yet the full story of this monumental endeavor has never been told. Now, in an engrossing, fast-paced narrative, Joseph E. Stevens recounts the gripping saga of Hoover Dam. Drawing on a wealth of material, including manuscript collections, government documents, contemporary newspaper and magazine accounts, and personal interviews and correspondence with men and women who were involved with the construction, he brings the Hoover Dam adventure to life.Described here in dramatic detail are the deadly hazards the work crews faced as they hacked and blasted the dam’s foundation out of solid rock; the bitter political battles and violent labor unrest that threatened to shut the job down; the deprivation and grinding hardship endured by the workers’ families; the dam builders’ gambling, drinking, and whoring sprees in nearby Las Vegas; and the stirring triumphs and searing moments of terror as the massive concrete wedge rose inexorably from the canyon floor.Here, too, is an unforgettable cast of characters: Henry Kaiser, Warren Bechtel, and Harry Morrison, the ambitious, headstrong construction executives who gambled fortune and fame on the Hoover Dam contract; Frank Crowe, the brilliant, obsessed field engineer who relentlessly drove the work force to finish the dam two and a half years ahead of schedule; Sims Ely, the irascible, teetotaling eccentric who ruled Boulder City, the straightlaced company town created for the dam workers by the federal government; and many more men and women whose courage and sacrifice, greed and frailty, made the dam’s construction a great human, as well as technological, adventure.Hoover Dam is a compelling, irresistible account of an extraordinary American epic.
Stages to Saturn: A Technological History of the Apollo/Saturn Launch Vehicles
Roger E. Bilstein - 1997
. . . Roger Bilstein gracefully wends his way through a maze of technical documentation to reveal the important themes of this story. Rarely has such a nuts-and-bolts tale been so gracefully told."—Air University Review"Easily the best book of the NASA History Series. . . . Starting with the earliest rockets, Bilstein traces the development of the family of massive Saturn launch vehicles that carried the Apollo astronauts to the moon and boosted Skylab into orbit."—Technology and CultureA classic study of the development of the Saturn launch vehicle that took Americans to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s, Stages to Saturn is one of the finest official histories ever produced. The Saturn rocket was developed as a means of accomplishing President John F. Kennedy's goal for the United States to reach the moon before the end of the decade. Without the Saturn V rocket, with its capability of sending as payload the Apollo Command and Lunar Modules--along with support equipment and three astronauts--more than a quarter of a million miles from earth, Kennedy's goal would have been unrealizable. Stages to Saturn not only tells the important story of the research and development of the Saturn rockets and the people who designed them but also recounts the stirring exploits of their operations, from orbital missions around earth testing Apollo equipment to their journeys to the moon and back. Essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the development of space flight in America and the course of modern technology, this reprint edition includes a new preface by the author providing a 21st-century perspective on the historic importance of the Saturn project.Roger E. Bilstein is professor emeritus of history at the University of Houston, Clear Lake. Regarded as one of the nation’s premier aerospace historians, he is the author of six books, including Flight in America: From the Wrights to the Astronauts and Testing Aircraft, Exploring Space: An Illustrated History of NACA and NASA.
Psychic Blues
Mark Edward - 2012
Written for the mainstream audience and not necessarily curious magicians or psychic entertainers, the inquiring reader will quickly find themselves on the inside track of such grandiose scams as talking to the dead for fun and profit, the psychic radio business, spiritualist churches and their New Age offspring, psychic infomercials, Hollywood and the celebrity scene, the agents who ply the psychic’s wares, very private readings and numerous twisted and weirdly bizarre trips I have taken and taken others on for the last twenty five years. It’s all here and laid bare with an eye towards finding the humor in it all, not just another expose or debunking bore. This is a dark comedy narrative taken from true experiences that rips open the cracks in the crystal ball. If you are a mentalist, psychic or just a wannabe charlatan, you can find a lifetime of nefarious tricks of the trade sandwiched in-between the LOLs and stranger-than-any fiction tales of a bumpy career traveling the slick underbelly of the professional soothsayer.
The Ascension Mysteries: Revealing the Cosmic Battle Between Good and Evil
David Wilcock - 2016
With his latest book, The Ascension Mysteries, David will take readers on a surprising and enthralling journey through the history of the universe, exploring the great Cosmic Battle surrounding our own Ascension. David Wilcock’s previous New York Times bestsellers, The Source Field Investigations and The Synchronicity Key, used cutting-edge alternative science to reveal oft-hidden truths about our universe. In The Ascension Mysteries, David takes us on a gripping personal journey that describes the secret cosmic battle between positive and negative happening every day, hidden in both the traumas of our own lives and the world’s headlines. Through his contact with a positive higher intelligence behind the UFO phenomenon, groundbreaking scientific information, and data from high-ranking government whistle-blowers, David reveals that the earth is now on the front lines of a battle that has been raging between positive and negative extraterrestrials for hundreds of thousands of years. The Ascension Mysteries explores the towering personal obstacles David overcame to unlock the great secrets of our universe and looks ahead to what this battle means for each of us personally. By unifying ancient texts from a variety of religions with scientific data and insider testimony, David presents a stunning conclusion—that Earth is on the verge of a massive cosmic event that will transform matter, energy, consciousness, and biological life as we now know it and will utterly defeat the great villains of our time.
The Philadelphia Experiment
Charles Berlitz - 1978
. . Suddenly the U.S.S. Eldridge, a fully manned destroyer escort, vanished into a green fog, within seconds appeared in Norfolk, Virginia, and then reappeared in Philadelphia!For over thirty-six years officials have denied this, have denied any experimentation to render matter invisible -- have denied the reality of THE PHILADELPHIA EXPERIMENT.If so, why --* were all the men aboard ship who survived discharged as mentally unfit?* did a scientific researcher on the project meet a mysterious death?* were identities hidden, documents lost, and amazing connections between UFO sightings and events in the Bermuda Triangle denied?THE PHILADELPHIA EXPERIMENT -- the first full-length documented report on a chilling unsolved mystery that's been discussed for years. Now, official documents and first-hand stories have been revealed. Here is the truth in a report so shattering it is difficult to believe it's NOT fiction.