John F. Ross (1) (1958–)
Autor de War on the Run: The Epic Story of Robert Rogers and the Conquest of America's First Frontier
Para otros autores llamados John F. Ross, ver la página de desambiguación.
Obras de John F. Ross
Etiquetado
Conocimiento común
- Fecha de nacimiento
- 1958-12-29
- Género
- male
- Ocupaciones
- editor
- Biografía breve
- [excerpt from author's website]
Formerly the editor of American Heritage and Invention & Technology magazines, he is the recipient of the 2011 Fort Ticonderoga Award for Contributions to American History. Before that he was on the Board of Editors of Smithsonian magazine, during which he wrote four cover stories.
On assignment Ross has dogsledded with the Polar Inuit of northwest Greenland, lived with nomadic Khanty reindeer herders in Siberia, chased scorpions in Baja, and dived 3,000 feet underwater in the Galapagos for Smithsonian, gone technical mountain climbing in Siberia for the National Geographic, and explored old castles in Europe for The Discovery Channel.
He has appeared on more than 50 radio and television programs, keynoted a dozen conferences around the country, and given talks at the Explorers Club of New York, NASAs Ames Research Center, the Pritzker Military Library, and the Smithsonian Institution.
He has helped start and run two magazines, been a producer for CBS News's Face the Nation, and edited many large-format books for Smithsonian Institution Press. His organization of the most northern canoe trip into the Arctic earned him membership in the Explorers Club of New York. For his television documentary work he won a national cableACE award.
Miembros
Reseñas
War on the Run. The Epic Story of Robert Rogers and… por John F. Ross
I keep thinking that I have read this book before, but if so I am glad I read it again. Descriptions of his battles, tactics and personal life read alot like Rogers was a military savant, brilliant at leading small groups of rangers in battles, but hopeless in getting straight answers from his British bosses, or even getting paid by the British. He was pretty successful at making enemies, such as Gage, who worked very hard to screw up his military career and finances. Here was a true American hero in the French & Indian War who was considered a traitor by the Americans in the Revolution and who ended up in debtor's prison, not once but several times. A truly tragic figure. ...and, as usual, crappy maps.… (más)
Light on science, heavy on politics, I wasn't enamored of this book. John Wesley Powell himself is an interesting character. He explored the Grand Canyon through its famous Colorado River, a dangerous journey to be sure. The first journey turned into a fight for survival, with half of the party striking out on their own across the desert rather than facing more rapids, never to be seen again. The second journey finally focused more on the science and exploration, but I was never satisfied that it was really explained. How did he come to these large-scale conclusions about the earth's geologic history and formation? It wasn't discussed to my satisfaction. It's hard thing to explain, certainly, but I felt the author took the easy way out and instead focused on the trip itself and the people involved.
After Powell's exploration days are over, he begins making the argument with Congress that he should be funded to create a topographical map of the entire western region. He argues that this map will help explain where water is available and, more commonly, where it is not. The western United States is largely arid, and the story being handed out to settlers that it was a land of opportunity for farming was not the case.
While there were interesting aspects of this book, I kept wishing it had been done a little differently. I wanted more of the science and less of the personal relationships in this instance.… (más)
After Powell's exploration days are over, he begins making the argument with Congress that he should be funded to create a topographical map of the entire western region. He argues that this map will help explain where water is available and, more commonly, where it is not. The western United States is largely arid, and the story being handed out to settlers that it was a land of opportunity for farming was not the case.
While there were interesting aspects of this book, I kept wishing it had been done a little differently. I wanted more of the science and less of the personal relationships in this instance.… (más)
This series is informative, with excellent, often spectacular, photography.
I've already read a fair number of books and articles about measuring and managing risk, and so the first part of the book was not very interesting to me. It doesn't get going for me until p. 71, with the idea that:
Considering each and every decision would slow us down to a crawl, so we rely on general rules of thumb about risk to guide us.... A key aspect of the modern language of risk is learning how our unconscious preconceptions influence our evaluation of the risk around us."
and the beginning of the list of influences on our perceptions of risk (ie, optimistic bias, dread, the exotic, etc.).
One thing that does make this a bit hard to read - it's as if Ross just had so much to say that he left it all in... but then didn't use any extra clarifying words (nonetheless, but then, exceptions to...) or book-design features (section headings, bolded terms, effective chapter summaries....) to make it easy to master the information. It's easy enough to read, but I'm having trouble making anything meaningful stick in my head.
One thing I did like was the bit where he told us about Paracelsus and the impact of his achievements. He situated the man in context, saying that "[h]is contemporaries were Nicolaus Copernicus, Martin Luther, (and) Leonarda da Vinci..." which helps the reader see patterns and connections. I for one had never realized these great thinkers were contemporaries!
I also liked learning the Scottish saying "Many a mickle makes a muckle." Little things can accumulate to make a big difference. One application of this thought is that increasing the complexity of a system by adding more and more fail-safes, back-ups, and checks can in fact make it more likely that the system will fail catastrophically.
Nothing wrong with the book, and if it's the only one you can find about our difficulties assessing & evaluating risk in meaningful ways, then you really should read it. But I'm sure there are newer, better ones. This one also lacks sufficient concrete examples - it's more abstract than I'd like it to be.
I'll be giving it 3.5 stars, rounding down because it's old, and there are no notes or glossary (however there is a selected bibliography and an index)."… (más)
Considering each and every decision would slow us down to a crawl, so we rely on general rules of thumb about risk to guide us.... A key aspect of the modern language of risk is learning how our unconscious preconceptions influence our evaluation of the risk around us."
and the beginning of the list of influences on our perceptions of risk (ie, optimistic bias, dread, the exotic, etc.).
One thing that does make this a bit hard to read - it's as if Ross just had so much to say that he left it all in... but then didn't use any extra clarifying words (nonetheless, but then, exceptions to...) or book-design features (section headings, bolded terms, effective chapter summaries....) to make it easy to master the information. It's easy enough to read, but I'm having trouble making anything meaningful stick in my head.
One thing I did like was the bit where he told us about Paracelsus and the impact of his achievements. He situated the man in context, saying that "[h]is contemporaries were Nicolaus Copernicus, Martin Luther, (and) Leonarda da Vinci..." which helps the reader see patterns and connections. I for one had never realized these great thinkers were contemporaries!
I also liked learning the Scottish saying "Many a mickle makes a muckle." Little things can accumulate to make a big difference. One application of this thought is that increasing the complexity of a system by adding more and more fail-safes, back-ups, and checks can in fact make it more likely that the system will fail catastrophically.
Nothing wrong with the book, and if it's the only one you can find about our difficulties assessing & evaluating risk in meaningful ways, then you really should read it. But I'm sure there are newer, better ones. This one also lacks sufficient concrete examples - it's more abstract than I'd like it to be.
I'll be giving it 3.5 stars, rounding down because it's old, and there are no notes or glossary (however there is a selected bibliography and an index)."… (más)
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Estadísticas
- Obras
- 5
- Miembros
- 491
- Popularidad
- #50,320
- Valoración
- 3.9
- Reseñas
- 19
- ISBNs
- 24