The simple equation having only 5 symbols is deep in meaning. It took the genious of Einstein to put the equation together way back in 1905 - - - What E found was: Energy equals mass when you accelerate mass to the speed of light squared. That's 670,000,000 mph times itself.
C stands for 'celeritis' in latin and it means, 'swiftness.' C squared is 448,900,000,000,000,000 mph!
No speedometer exists on Earth that can travel that fast! WOW!
Einstein knew that energy could naturally transform itself into mass under specific and unique condtions.
The equation was published in 1905 and essentially remained dormant and untested until the war.
Then it became a horrifying reality that Einstein himself wished he never uncovered all those years ago.
Other scientists converged their great minds together in a think tank called the Manhatten Projet, and the world changed for the worse --- upon their nuclear discoveries.
Did Fat Boy really need to do what he did?
NEVER! THe controversy broils to this day.
It is so strange to contemplate that in the pool of the most intelligent men on Earth, not a one of them was smart enough to forsee the evil that they created.
Like the saying goes, "You can lead a man to wisdom, but you can't make him think."
None of them thought about what this nuclear power could do when left in terrorist grips.
This book tells the story behind the famous little equation.
Einstein did play a part in developing nuclear arsonel, even though he later denied he encouraged it.
Please see his letter to President FDR on pages 117 - 18.
The reader is left to draw thier own conclusions on that.
Regardless of the controversy, I read this book and must give it my highest recommendations to all who ever wondered what this equation means. It's deep but not complex.
It's complex but not inaccessable by average minds.
What's really chilling is reading what is not said in between the lines of this book.
Could we have avoided the discovery of the Atomic bomb?
Imagine our world without it.....and to think, the Germans weren't all that close to uncovering the secret behind the destruction.
This is a good book about E = mc 2.
Read it and learn that all discoveries have a dark side.

Author Rick Brag did an awesome job of telling the true story behind Private First Class Jessica Lynch's ordeal. She is a simple country gal who grew up in a close knit American town, but like so many small towns in West Virginia, this means there are not too many options facing it's high school graduates.
Precious few jobs exist and that is why small country hollers in the middle of nowhere, USA recruit the highest per capita ratio of young people willing to become soldiers.
The military is the only exciting future for many teens.
Jessi was one such person - tough as nails and pretty as a tiny doll. She proved herself to be an American hero in an Iraqi battlefield.
Many people don't know this, but Jessica Lynch was awarded the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star, and the Prisoner of War Medal.
She deserves each and every distinguished metal, and she has the internal & external scars to prove her mettle.
Some rude people are skeptical of her sacrifices, but as they sit on thier ever-expanding duffs critising everybody, Jessi is struggling to rehabilitate her legs and bladder and bowels.
Her wounds are far from being healed even today.
What horrors her dreams are made of nightly from being a prisoner of war I can only shiver and wonder about.
She gave all that she could for this war and served the US Army to her utmost abilities.
It is difficult to know that there are persons who wish to defame Jessica Lynch - people like that belong in hell.
YES, she is a super-star, a woman warrior and famous person who recieved many special gifts as well as discretionary bonuses, but Jessica herself is adamant that she would give "Four hundred billion dollars" for none of it to have ever occured, if she could somehow board a time machine and take back the combat death of her best roomy friend, Private First Class Lori Piestwa.
Jessica would do anything to talk her friend, PFC Lori Piestewa, out of going into Iraq, because her friend had papers discussing a shoulder injury which would have enabled her to stay in the safe zone.
Private Piestwa was a Hopi Indian and was the first Hopi to die in the line of fire in the history of this nation.
She leaves behind two young children, under the tender age of 5. I plowed through this book, reading about Jessica's life, but when I hit page 167 --- tears exploded in my eyes --- on this page is the picture of the father of Lori Piestewa, as a poem written for his daughter was being read at the Women in Military Service Memorial at Arlington National Cemetary.
Oh ... the anguish, the hoplessness, the sorrowful look on the old man's face...it crushed my hearts into bits and pieces and his grief came rushing into my own heart.
Jessica tells her story and does not leave out those heros who were tragically left behind; those who can never go home again.
The only consolation is that the body of young Private First Class Lori Piestewa was found and taken back to her family.
Her remains are now buried close to her kin, not buried in an unmarked place in the sandy dunes of Iraq.
This story moved me more than any of the other books that I have reviewed here. It's a story that rings of truth, of youth and consequences of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I sincerely wish that Jessica Lynch marries her sweetheart, Sgt. Rueben Contreras, and that they can have a happy life together.
I sincerely wish the people of Palestine, West Virginia, God's blessings and good grace; they truly love Jessica Lynch.
In spite of terrible tragedies, such as death, it is important to remember that life goes on...it simply has to go on.
After reading this book, (it only took 2 1/2 hours to read it from cover to cover.) I prayed for the soldiers in Iraq -- and those who will not make it home outside of the body bag. I pray for them and their families and for this great nation of ours who puts a high value on freedom and democracy for all humankind.
This story will move you like none other.
It makes me feel so proud to be an American, and to have those ideals of family, God and democracy deep in my heart.
God Bless the USA!

Anesthesiology was the single greatest discovery in American Medicine which benefited humanity on a universal scale.
It was on a Friday, October 16th, 1846 at Mass General Hospital that one William Morton applied the mystery gas. He was not a doctor, nor did he understand exactly what he was doing to the hapless patient...
The patient lying quietly on the slab was dreading an exquisitely painful operation; a tumor was to be removed from his neck. He was to be the first to recieve a completely painfree operation.
The surgical theater was packed with surgeons and medical students up to the rafters....
Would this prove a huge scientific discovery or another humbug?
It was a huge success and the medical world plus humankind (and animals) would never have to suffer painful surgical intervention again!
Horace Wells and Charles Jackson also laid claim to the actual discovery of Nitrous Oxide, as explained on page 51.
The three men had equal vestitures of discovery of the analgesic properties of Nitrous, Ether, Choroform and other more modern anesthetics.
Unfortunately for them, their curosity of these inhalable substances led to their addictions to it for the rest of their natural lives.
Greed and the need to be recognized for this invention also consumed the minds of these young scientists.
They all died without any recompense for their amazing discovery,
which is the mother of all rip-offs if you asked me.
Their lives were completely enslaved to the powers of these vapors and the legalities tied to the discovery.
I bought this amazing little book because I am engaged in a gigantic debate with an anesthesiologist.
She doesn't think my psychiatric technician students should be allowed to witness certain surgeries in the OR that she works in. I am seeking all powerful stories and arguments to bolster my position...and this is my position...
any all all persons who are intelligent and brave enough to WANT to witness a surgery SHOULD be allowed to witness one.
It's a valuable learning experience that should be shared by as many willing parties in controlled conditions.
She is too elitist, because she values only the up and coming MDs. The hospital is not a residency medical center.
It's a nice community hospital with some good learning going on...why not share the knowledge and allow science to flow from the OR onto new students who would value this experience?
I learned alot about anesthesiology by reading this moderatly thin volume...it's a bargain, too.
For 97 cents, I expanded my mind, built an arsenal of great arguments pro-surgical theatrics and can challenge the minds of even the most preMadonna-ist of anesthesiologists!
Tell me --- Now, you go girl!
And just watch me....Off I go!

Chris Kraft is one of those brilliant rarities that can lead and design complex and difficult projects and has complete faith that the answer is just around the next corner.
He was the FLIGHT director of all three distinguished space programs beginning with Mercury and ending with Apollo.
Gemini was stuck in the middle and without Gemini, Apollo would never have landed on the moon.

It's so odd that many people STILL refuse to accept the facts that the USA DID in fact land on the moon on that fateful day, July 20th, 1969.
YES - 44 years ago Apollo 11 did so on the EAGLE at exactly 3:17:39.9PM CST in the United States of America.
Neil Armstrong's voice was clear over the radio, a quarter million miles away,
"Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed."
Armstrong was much admired in NASA for having a cool head under intense pressure and he was unanimously voted to be the first man to step foot on the moon.
At the time, it was unknown what the surface of the moon was made of...some scientists feared the top layer of the moon dust was one mile of soft sand that would collapse under any weight and swallow up the landing ship upon it's landing.
Thankfully, this did not occur, nor were there any life-threatning germs found on the lunar surface.

"One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
Those words forever changed our world. Along with the lunar landing came many inventions that blessed our quality of life with many newfangled inventions like the super speedy computers and telemetry that could monitor heart rhythms of people.

Everyone got their due in this tell-all book and what a page-turner it proved to be. Kraft is a brilliant man who can tell it like it is and he sure lead an exciting and intellectual life.
It's sad that his family got the short end of the stick, but the nation recieved his best and most intensive labor.
Without Kraft, I seriously doubt that the US would have made the moon in 1969...I really do.
Read this book and understand the whole story....all the twists and turns and convolutions of the bueracracy.
It's interesting and I need to mention that initially, Kraft had a low interpersonal assesment of the genious scientist, Wernher von Braun. He disliked the fact that von Braun bombed Europe with his evil VH bombs --- he hated the fact that Hitler bossed von Braun around the way he did. But then later, he had to understand that a knife was held at von Bruan's throat and he HAD to do those evil things.....or Hitler would of had him executed or shot or whatnot.....Kraft later awarded von Bruan with his highest admiration because without von Braun, there'd very likely be no Saturn V moon rocket. It's statistics must NEVER be forgotten, insists Kraft, and here I will discuss it with you.
The Saturn V had 3 stages, the first was 33 feet in diameter.
It had 5 monster rocket engines and each one could produce 1.5 MILLION pounds of thrust! (That's 7.5 million pounds on this stage alone....)
Now add stage 2 : it was 30 feet in diameter and had 5 smaller engines that punched up 1 million pounds of thrust.
(uh let's see --- 5 more million pounds added to #1.)
Then the third stage was 22 feet across with no specified thrust given, but it was impressive!!!
Add the equation up and add some more millions to it and uh --- well -- you get the idea! That mutha kicked!!!
All this power was required to break free of Earth's gravitational field and launch Apollo into Earth orbit.
WOW! What a ride it must have been!
All this happened so long ago and before long, Americans took space travel for granted.
According to Kraft, we could have landed on MARS in the 1990's had we stuck to our high ideals and kept the NASA space exploration programs going at full tilt.
But politics and Viet Nam came into the picture and that was the piece of pie NASA needed to perform these unrealized dreams.
They went as far as Apollo 17 - that was as far as the budget and national interest allowed for them.
Kind of a shame to stop dreaming big....but I know other programs need our aid too.
Some people say we don't need space and we don't need to explore while world hunger is still a reality here along with homelessness and child abuse.
Maybe we should forgo it and take care of the more fundamental problems facing humanity here on Earth.
But after reading this quality book, it encourages one's intellect to reach for the stars and never stop thirsting for the truth about our universe and the many associated discoveries that will come with other great adventures up there in the mysterious cosmos.
I bought this book for a mere $3.98 and I wish I could share it with every person who is reading here at AMAZON dot com.
It's a wonderful book that you should endeaver -- it will bring you much discovery and knowledge.
Thank you Chris Kraft for living an exemplary life and sharing your brain power with all those programs that improved the world.

The story is worth reading from all who shared in it and have a point of view.

"Something's Gotta Give" is one of those funny movies that dares to delve into delicate relationships between men and women.
The older man and the younger chick-a-dee,
Older woman and the young hunk.
Truth be told, LOVE's a scary thing, especially since some of us can't live without it.
There's a moral to this story - - - and you have to read between the lines, but it goes something like this:
LOVE comes to those who seek it and one should not fear the hunt for LOVE. Sometimes you might get lust in it's place, but that's not such a bad thing.
LOVE is what makes the world go wrong and it knows no age boundaries. Don't be afraid to go for it!
Nicholson and Keaton are very good in this film, and there are some funny moments like when Jack inadvertently sees Keaton in the buff. He's shocked, she's embarrassed, but then they are able to move beyond this accident and find that they have alot in common after all.
He's a womanizer, and this is something that she's supposed to be able to handle with flair, but that's not what a real woman would do. Any woman who wants a serious long term relationship with a man would have stuck it out with Reeves...the young MD who is hot for Keaton's charactor.
He genuinely loved her, but she didn't feel so worthy...
I wish the movie would have ended differently, but that's Hollywood for ya.

790 pages of excellent advice from the Father of Modern Body Building himself; Arnold Schwarzenegger. This book is a true inspiration to those who wish to lose weight, tone up the body and even pump up their muscles. Body building is not just for men, women need this advice too.
This wonderful encyclopedic text provides motivation, guidance though various work-outs and explains the excersizes clearly.
Nutrition is discussed throughout, and it all falls into helping a person to train themselves back into shape.
It's never too late to get yourself back into good physical condition, and this book stresses the importance of the mind and the body working in unison to achieve the goal of homeostasis and balance.
Arnold encourages women and men to make the effort to get back into shape; he advises to get a gym buddy to help encourage you to go to the gym, or hire a personal trainer - if that's what it takes. Arnold values good health, and his wonderful, heartfelt advice comes through time and time again in this fabulous book.
Read it...read parts of it if you don't have the time to read it page by page, all the way through.
It's full of encouraging words and beautiful pictures of Arnold and all the other body-building greats...my favorites:
Lou Ferrigno
Frank Zane
Dave Draper
Sergio Oliva
Franco Columbo
Robby Robinson
Vince Taylor
Dorian Yates
Flex Wheeler
and my #1 Favorite Bodybuilder: Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The original year of publication of this book was 1985,
then it was updated and refreshed in 1998.
Arnold is more popular than ever, now that he is govenor of California, and it is important to see his early rise to popularity in this great nation of ours.
Get this book and keep it near your bed or stuffed in your gym bag. You will learn things about getting into shape -- not just your body but your mind too.
Remember - it's never too late to get back into shape, and
Arnold is quite willing to allow himself to be your own personal trainer, if you wish.
Just get the book -- it's a true winner! You'll love it -
it will change your life for the better if you put it into motion like I did. I read the book, skipping here and there, but I can honestly testify....
It's improved my life in ways I never imagined, and if you are serious about improving your overall health and wellbeing, I encourage you to get this book into your life! Oh and...thank you for reading my review.

This is an extraordinary little book that one could easily cover in an evening. It's about a man who lived a rough life, and he felt unimportant for practically his whole existence.
The only brightness in his life was the love of his life; who he managed to make his wife. She is one of the FIVE persons he meets up with in Heaven when it is his time to go.
The other FOUR persons are really circumstances that the man had encountered while living his life on Earth.
They are really metaphors and I have to devote some time to thinking about the meaning behind them.
He didn't really know them like friends while he was alive, but he impacted their lives in tremendous ways.
Or their lives impacted his life with tremendous influence.
The objective of the author, Mitch Albom, is to remind all of us that we are important to many others in this world and we should never, never underestimate this truth.
If you are a mother or a father--- this book is influential.
If you are a brother or a sister -- this book is important.
If you are a child of somebody, this book will help you.
If you leave your house for any job on this planet, remember your role and take it seriously.
Your role that you play does affect many, many people.
It is up to YOU to decide the caliber of your own life's work.
The story is about a man named Eddie,
but really it's a story that's all about us...the reader.
BIRTHDAYS are also treated with respect and importance. I have always valued birthdays and I think they are extremely important in the ongoing validation of people that we know and love.
Never foget a birthday -- at least give the person having a birthday some acknowledgment of their special day.
After all --- the world changes every time there is a birthday (for better or worse.)
It's brilliantly thought out,
the words are simple, well chosen and paint a lovely picture.
I think that the FIVE people I meet in Heaven will be mostly folks that I knew on Earth, but then again, I can be like Eddie and learn about things in the background of my life that I never considered.
One thing this book encourages is
TO DO YOUR ABSOLUTE BEST at whatever role you play in this world.
Be a good parent. Be a good spouse. Be a loving child to your aging parents. Take care of everybody that needs your help or asks for a hand. Share the love that you have in your heart, because one never knows how long we have to live in this beautiful world.
This book has influenced me greatly and I have alot more good to offer this world....it's changed my attitude tremendously.
Perhaps this book will change you too, in ways that can only be described as postive and uplifing.

This book is written by the man who revolutionized the scientific study of death and what happens to our bodies when our spirit leaves and the blowflies move in.
Before reading this fine book, I never considered that the fly I shooed off my shoulder or off my food, may have been spawned inside of a dead corpse! (GAG!) Hoo-ballooo-ballooo!...that just gives me the willies.! My maw tole me flies were dirty creatures, but she never did tell me that they spawn on dead flesh! How totally disgusting! But, these are the facts according to one who knows; Dr. Bass set up this forensic research lab and studied the process of death - how a body can go from warm dead to cold, rigor mortis and rot all the way down to the skeletal level.
Evidently, the rotting down to the bone level is quicker when the temperature is warma and there is alot of moisture in the atomosphere. But if a corpse is inside a body of water, it tends to preserve itself a bit longer...nobody knew this fact until our kind Dr. Bass conducted actual experiementation on the subject. So now we know.....
He needed to do this in order to pinpoint the time of death that a human being died. This is extremely applicable to those unfortunate souls who were victims of violent crimes.
One day you read in the newspaper that person was found dead in their home; bloated, smelly and laying in a pool of black oil.
The first question from the coroner and the family is, "How long have they been dead?" Nobody could estimate this with any accuracy until Dr. Bass's studies began in the Anthropology Research Facility in Tennesse....Patricia Cornwall dubbed it, "The Body Farm," and made it famous around the globe.
I'd sure like to visit the place someday, but only while I am still alive!
Nobody had ever done this research prior to Dr. Bass, because, quite frankly, it's revolting and disgusting work.
Thank God that Dr. Bass can look beyond the gore, and get to the truth: (but how he can tolerate the horrible smell is beyond me! UGH! GROSS!)
The stench would knock one off their feet!
Dr. Bass explains how he came into the field of studying death and decay, and he has dedicated not only this book, but his entire professional career to all victims of murder, their family who mourns them, and to all who seek justice.
That is pretty amazing stuff; alot of the studies have to do with maggots and their lifespan. I have to say that I admire the man for going where no other man dare goeth. All the discoveries of dead bodies and the process of death is clearly explained, and it's only a tad gross. As readers, we aren't subjected to sniffing the foulness of the air when a corpse is being studied, like Dr. Bass's students had to do. Nor are there nasty photos that will cause one to upchuck one's breakfast; the stories are told well and the good doctor keeps it all under control, so the reader will not stumble upon some detail that could possibly be traumatic. I recommend this book to anyone who has an avid interest in medicine and forensics. It is also a good book for people who love flies and want to learn more about maggots. I also think it comes in handy when deciding what to do with your remains once you die. I am very much in the air after reading this book...I am still torn between being cremated versus being buried inside of a casket. Both methods have their draw-backs but one thing is for certain...I am not donating my body for any scientific studies at the Body Farm in Tennesse! No siree!

Admit it, you've wondered how great artists like Vincent Van Gogh came up with all his brightly colored paintings, with brush strokes as thick as tiles. "Cafe Terrace at Night" is one such work of superb inspiration. Or maybe you are driving in your car, feeling anxious about a confrontation at home or at work that will occur minutes ahead, and a Led Zepplin song comes on the radio - you crank it up and suddenly --- you are no longer feeling fragile -- the music of the Zep affects your brain state in a way that makes you feel a lion!
Your mood has been transformed by the hard driving rock music and off you go...no longer the sheep, but the lion king!
I have often contemplated what drives artists to create the beautiful works that they do....
Are there really such things as Muses that wander around the Earth, selectively choosing one person to create a great Rock Ballad while picking someone else to compose a classic painting?
Do the Muses care who is the ballerina as opposed to who works in a coal mine all day long? God must have a hand in distributing the 'gift' does He not?
What drives a person to become artistic?
What are the forces behind the artists of our times?
This wonderful book attempts to explain where the drive to write arises, and it is within our own 3 pound brains.
Dr. Alice Flaherty pinpoints the location of inspiration to be somewhere in the Limbic System -- between the hypothalmus and temporal lobes. Somewhere that we deeply experience pleasure and displeasure.
Why study creative forces?
Some artists feel we should leave it alone; that looking to closely could possibly render it extinct.
But the author and I have this agreement - "Creativity is too important a phenomenon that we cannot afford not to study it."

The author readily discloses her mental health history, with tragedies revealed that lend her theories much credence.
She has her internal scars that may initially be invisible to you and I, but after reading this brilliant book, we conclude that she still does require further intensive care and attention.
No, she is not psychotic, but is in a suspended state of grieving, and this book may have helped her heal a great deal.
She admits that her altered (depresssed) psychic state plunged her into the state of 'hypergraphia' or the need to write down thoughts in order to communicate an important idea and perhaps these ideas may change our world in positive ways.

She cites many poets, behaviorists and scientists along the way, and sometimes the intellectualism gets rather deep. It's dry in some pasages, but be patient and stick it out. Because when the author comes up for air, and regains her stride, we are rewarded for sticking through the reading with passages from poems that are jewels.
Take Donald Justice's poem, "The Telephone Number of the Muse."
It's just breathtaking....

"I call her up sometimes, long distance now.
And she still knows my voice, but I can hear,
Behind the music of her phonograph,
The laughter of the young men with their keys.
I have the number written down somewhere...."

This is a captivating book - read it and discover why you read and why you ought to read this interesting book.
I think I know who the Muse is....it's metaphoric for our inner child. The person within ourselves that longs for recognition, and an audience who showers us with appreciation.
My Muse loves to play hide and seek, and
wouldn't you know....it is the favorite game of all Muses?

Dr. Michael West is a brilliant man in search of high tech ways to cure catastrophic diseases & pathologies - such as type I Diabetes, Quadriplegia, cancer and heart damage from heart attacks. All noble quests to benefit mankind. The only problem with this is that along with the potential to help mankind with regenerative medicine concepts, therein lies another darker potential. The corruptability of such an endeaver, and yes, there are always those equally brilliant scientists out there who are willing to tweak the bad that generates from the good.
West goes into vague detail explaining what stem cells are, and what the science can acheive in medicine, and cloning. I wish he went into further depth giving examples and photos of what he witnessed under the microscope. If he would have included some slides, I would have given the book a 5 star rating instead of the 4. It is a good book that gives readers a taste of this controversial topic. He further explains how Dolly the sheep came to be in this world, and yes, the sheep was named after Dolly Parton, the country singer, because the sheep was cloned out of a cell from the breast tissue of another sheep.
All this research into the mortal cell costs millions, perhaps billions of dollars, $$$, but in the end, the goal is not to prolong life forever. It's really to maintain the quality of life for all, especially the aged. Dr. West is very compassionate towards the elderly in our world, and it's good to see that somebody is passionate about curing the ails that often accompany old age.
One question that I have for Dr. West is what should the average life expectancy be for people? 100? 110?
Curing hearing and sight loss, kidney failure, liver failure are all good things that could come from recombinant DNA therapy.
But the dark side could promote supernatural human beings; turning engineered cells into engineered people. These 'superpeople' can potentially outthink, outperform and ultimately - wipe out the current natural human race that we have spent millions of years evolving into. If these cloned people reproduced with regular human beings, something called germ-line genetic modification, something terribly wrong could happen. This is one of the kind Doctor's admitted fears.
Our standard of living would become too high to sustain or even achieve. It would create many insurmountable problems the world has never known.
Tinkering with the atom in the Manhatten Project ultimately brought us terrorism as we know it today. Could those brilliant scientists not see the disaster behind the discovery?
Now our modern scientists are tinkering with the human genome project. It is mapped out and published. Scientists such as Dr. West wish to exploit this important and exciting discovery to help mankind, but we must be wary of the ever present dark side of all good creations.
Are we ready to make this scientific leap?
Read the book and ponder the answer...I have no answers at this point---the book contains arguments both ways, but leans towards the pro and dismisses the con pretty blantantly.
Nonetheless, it is a very interesting read, and contains somewhat technical ideas in it, which only encourages me to further research the topic of theraputic cloning and stem cell research.