The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death

Amazon.com

We've all got our idiosyncrasies when it comes to writing--a special chair we have to sit in, a certain kind of yellow paper we absolutely must use. To create this tremendously affecting memoir, Jean-Dominique Bauby used the only tool available to him--his left eye--with which he blinked out its short chapters, letter by letter. Two years ago, Bauby, then the 43-year-old editor-in-chief of Elle France, suffered a rare stroke to the brain stem; only his left eye and brain escaped damage. Rather than accept his "locked in" situation as a kind of death, Bauby ignited a fire of the imagination under himself and lived his last days--he died two days after the French publication of this slim volume--spiritually unfettered. In these pages Bauby journeys to exotic places he has and has not been, serving himself delectable gourmet meals along the way (surprise: everything's ripe and nothing burns). In the simplest of terms he describes how it feels to see reflected in a window "the head of a man who seemed to have emerged from a vat of formaldehyde."

Book Description

In 1995, Jean-Dominique Bauby was the editor-in-chief of French Elle, the father of two young childen, a 44-year-old man known and loved for his wit, his style, and his impassioned approach to life. By the end of the year he was also the victim of a rare kind of stroke to the brainstem. After 20 days in a coma, Bauby awoke into a body which had all but stopped working: only his left eye functioned, allowing him to see and, by blinking it, to make clear that his mind was unimpaired. Almost miraculously, he was soon able to express himself in the richest detail: dictating a word at a time, blinking to select each letter as the alphabet was recited to him slowly, over and over again. In the same way, he was able eventually to compose this extraordinary book.

By turns wistful, mischievous, angry, and witty, Bauby bears witness to his determination to live as fully in his mind as he had been able to do in his body. He explains the joy, and deep sadness, of seeing his children and of hearing his aged father's voice on the phone. In magical sequences, he imagines traveling to other places and times and of lying next to the woman he loves. Fed only intravenously, he imagines preparing and tasting the full flavor of delectable dishes. Again and again he returns to an "inexhaustible reservoir of sensations," keeping in touch with himself and the life around him.

Jean-Dominique Bauby died two days after the French publication of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

This book is a lasting testament to his life.

Customer Reviews:

Meaning of life.......2007-09-24

Reading this book made a deep impact in me. Learning how Jean Dominique gives meaning to his life coming from such a desfavorable experience inspires me to continue the quest in searching for my own purpose in life.

Really makes you appreciate how little you're doing.......2007-07-30

After reading this, it helps put in perspective just how much time you waste. A person who can only blink one eye wrote a book in a matter of a couple of months. I've been working on mine for a matter of years. Almost makes me ashamed to be able-bodied. Great read to put your life in perspective. No matter HOW bad you think you have it, somebody has it worse.

A must-read.......2007-07-17

You will read this in one sitting. It is moving, inspirational and beautifully composed. My heart ached for Jean-Dominique and the situation he found himself in, but what courage he displayed, showing that the human spirit is indeed indomitable.

Inspirational and beautifully written.......2007-07-12

I bought this book after it had been recommended to me. It was inspirational and beautifully written. Astonishing when you consider the physical condition of the author that he was able to maintain a wonderful attitude. It's a testament to the human spirit and a lesson on what's truly important in life.

Powerful! Beautifully written!.......2007-06-10

As it is translated into English from French, I am curious as to how beautifully the French version was written. Translations do such an injustice to original works but I don't think anything was lost here.

I had the privilege of seeing the film based on the story of Jean-Dominique Bauby. It is from his point of view. The film moved me so much I HAD to read his book. Beautiful and powerful!

NOAA Diving Manual: Diving for Science and Technology, Fourth Edition

Average customer rating:

NOAA Diving Manual
Everything you would like to know about diving
Should Be A Required Reference
Best dive related book in print today.
This is THE Diving Bible!

NOAA Diving Manual: Diving for Science and Technology, Fourth Edition

Manufacturer: Best Pub Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0941332705

Book Description

his completely revised Fourth Edition of the NOAA Diving Manual, Diving for Science and Technology, is one of the most detailed diving reference books available and is a valuable resource for all who are interested in a complete encyclopedia of diving technology, equipment, techniques, and procedures.

More than 100 authors and reviewers, selected from a diverse spectrum of experts in recreational scuba diving, commercial, military, scientific and research diving, combined their expertise to address the complex issues involved in today's diving.

This new edition contains twenty-one chapters on all aspects of diving: techniques to improve the methodology of underwater scientific research, new gear, operational techniques and details to assist the diver in diving safely. In addition, there are ten appendices, including a glossary, references, and a detailed index. The technologies of rebreathers and mixed gas diving, including nitrox and oxygen are included; diving physics, physiology, decompression and diving medicine have been updated to reflect the recent development in the diving industry. The never-before-published NOAA Nitrox Tables and Nitrox Diving Procedures allow deeper and/or longer bottom times to increase diver efficiency when using nitrox, without affecting safety or increasing decompression time. The most current and up-to-date U.S. Navy Dive Tables are also included. The NOAA Diving Manual is a valuable resource all serious divers must have!

Customer Reviews:

NOAA Diving Manual.......2007-08-23

I purchased this book to give me more information on the science of scuba diving for my Dive Con and Dive Instructor courses.

The book gives detailed information on the gas laws, decompression theory as well as information on various forms of diving from contaminated water, tri mix, nitrox etc. The book is very well written and very clear.

If you are interested in get truly advanced knowledge of the effects of scuba diving on the body, I would highly recommend this book even though it is a little on the expensive side.

Everything you would like to know about diving.......2007-03-19

You can find all the explanations you need for those difficult issues related to diving. Excellent presentation, Beautifully illustrated. Easy to understand. If you want or need to go farther in your understanding of diving, you should get this book.

Should Be A Required Reference.......2002-12-16

I sincerely feel that the NOAA Diving Manual should be a required text for anybody who is a diving professional. The information presented is valuable to all divers: recreational, technical, scientific, and commercial. I refer to this text often and bring it to all classes I work.

Best dive related book in print today........2001-12-11

If there's only one dive related book you ever buy, it should be the NOAA Diving Manual.
The quality and content of the 4th edition of the NOAA Manual is nothing short of a masterpiece.
I have the printed versions as well as the CD ROM; the CD has the distinction of being user unfriendly to the point that it is little more than a ($$$)coaster.
After attempting to view the CD on no less than 6 different computers, I finally obtained "back door" opening instructions from the NTIS and was successful, though it did take repeated attempts to get it to respond. The folks at the NTIS explained that the anti-copy encryption used on the CD was responsible for preventing the CD from being opened for viewing.

To sum things up, the paper version gets 5 stars, the CD a zero.

UPDATE: The NTIS has come out with a new CD that works like a charm. THANK YOU!!

This is THE Diving Bible!.......2001-11-10

This is by far the most comprehensive publication on Dive related topics I have ever seen. It is a well organized manual that goes into great detail on every topic. The manual itself is a work of art. Each page is high quality glossy paper full of excellent diagrams and illustrations. I started reading it and can't put it down. A great addition to your dive library.

Treasure Lost at Sea: Diving to the World's Great Shipwrecks

Average customer rating:

A well-written, wide-ranging book

Treasure Lost at Sea: Diving to the World's Great Shipwrecks
Robert F. Marx , and Jenifer Marx
Manufacturer: Firefly Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Shipwrecks in the Americas
Salvaging Spanish Sunken Treasure
In the Wake of Galleons
Sunken Treasure: How to Find It
Shipwreck: A Saga of Sea Tragedy and Sunken Treasure

ASIN: 1552978729

Book Description

The vast hidden world of sunken treasure.

With less than 2% of the world's ocean depths explored to date, a myriad of unimagined mysteries and treasures await discovery. Treasure Lost at Sea chronicles the excitement of underwater archaeology and search for treasure. The book recounts the major periods and geographic locations of shipwrecks.

Chapters include:

The classical world
Scandinavian shipwrecks
The age of discovery
The Spanish galleons
Bermuda, graveyard of ships
Privateers, pirates and mutineers
Deep-water shipwrecks (Bismarck, Titanic, and others)
Port Royal: The sunken city

The lively text details the potential treasure as well as the political turf wars, technological limitations, and forces of nature that threaten any mission's success.

Humanity's long history of exploration, civilization, trade and war is littered with sunken vessels. Colorful and richly illustrated, Treasure Lost at Sea will inspire a new generation of underwater archaeologists.

Customer Reviews:

A well-written, wide-ranging book.......2006-07-20

This is a well-written book which ranges in presentation of shipwrecks and their treasures from ancient wrecks to a few 20th century ships (Titanic, Bismark). Lots of adventure and tales of the search for treasure ships without getting bogged down in minutae. The ships range through time since man began plying the seas and across the world. I really enjoyed reading this book and highly recommend it to you. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because I would have liked MORE pictures. It is loaded with pictures, but there was plenty of space to include more!

Snorkeling Guide to Marine Life: Florida Caribbean Bahamas

Average customer rating:

great for florida
Great Photos
Excellent annotation of great guides!
For casual snorkelers
Great for Fish Identifications

Snorkeling Guide to Marine Life: Florida Caribbean Bahamas
Paul Humann , and Ned DeLoach
Manufacturer: New World Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Natural History | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

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National Audubon Society Field Guide to Tropical Marine Fishes: Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, Florida, Bahamas, Bermuda
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Reef Creature Identification: Florida, Caribbean, Bahamas (Reef Set)
A Field Guide to Coral Reefs: Caribbean and Florida (Peterson Field Guides(R))

ASIN: 1878348108

Product Description

The latest of the excellent underwater field guides by Humann and company. It illustrates all the fishes, corals, invertebrates and plants you are most likely to encounter in less than 15 feet of water in the Caribbean. Humann's photographs are among the best we've seen for identification -- and its handy size makes it perfect to take along in the boat or to the beach.

Customer Reviews:

great for florida.......2007-08-12

This guide is short, but very effective. The book has drawings as well as pictures for fish identification. The drawings point out pertinent points for differentiation between fish and how the fish are classified. The book includes corals and some invertebrates as well. I bought this book before going snorkeling in Key Largo. To my surprise, I identified many of the fish as well as corals in this book. For the value, this book is a great purchase for carribean, florida snorkeling, or scuba diving trips.

Great Photos.......2006-07-16

Small enough and light weight enough to take along a vacation, and full of good photos and drawings.

Excellent annotation of great guides!.......2004-07-10

Snorkeling Guide to Marine Life is a very handy truncation of three heavy, bulky, but excellent references. There are extraordinary photographs of fish, creatures, and coral taken by noticeable experts. The fish species covered are stunning, and carefully chosen for quality. The others are also amazing and excilirating. A favorite fish species of mine, the Trumpetfish, is included here, shown in a beautiful photograph. Other interesting fish, such as puffers, cowfish, and triggerfish, are also listed. The "Creature Identification" section of the guide is as carefully picked out as the "Fish" ID part. Beautiful crabs, shrimps, and others are shown in nice photos. All make to combine a short, but very helpful field companion.

For casual snorkelers.......2003-12-09

If you dive or snorkel with any regularity, buy the 3-book set by Humann and Deloach. For casual snorkelers or divers, this book will do wonderfully. It's a bit heavy on the fish, so if you are looking for comprehensive invertebrate, algae, or coral guides, look elsewhere. Otherwise, this book will certainly enhance your enjoyment of snorkeling and diving.

Great for Fish Identifications.......2003-11-04

We used this book daily while snorkeling in Bonaire. Very good pictures and descriptions. Also good descriptions of coral.

The Biology of Human Survival: Life and Death in Extreme Environments

Average customer rating:

Academic and excellent
Understanding your limits

The Biology of Human Survival: Life and Death in Extreme Environments
Claude A. Piantadosi
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Bioethics and Armed Conflict: Moral Dilemmas of Medicine and War (Basic Bioethics)

ASIN: 0195165012

Book Description

The range of environments in which people can survive is extensive, yet most of the natural world cannot support human life. The Biology of Human Survival identifies the key determinants of life or death in extreme environments from a physiologist's perspective, integrating modern concepts of stress, tolerance, and adaptation into explanations of life under Nature's most austere conditions. The book examines how individuals survive when faced with extremes of immersion, heat, cold or altitude, emphasizing the body's recognition of stress and the brain's role in optimizing physiological function in order to provide time to escape or to adapt. In illustrating how human biology adapts to extremes, the book also explains how we learn to cope by blending behavior and biology, first by trial and error, then by rigorous scientific observation, and finally by technological innovation. The book describes life-support technology and how it enables humans to enter once unendurable realm, from the depths of the ocean to the upper reaches of the atmosphere and beyond. Finally, it explores the role that advanced technology might play in special environments of the future, such as long journeys into space.

Customer Reviews:

Academic and excellent.......2007-01-10

A fascinating look at what happens to the human body in extreme environments. Clear explanations of dehydration, hypothermia and starvation. Lots of wonderful factoids and anecdotes. An academic book, but I found it well worth the effort.

Understanding your limits.......2003-10-01

This is a scholarly work which is accessible to lay readers while informative to trained physiologists. The language is polished, well edited and communicates easily. The chapter length is convenient to a 20-30 minute session making this rather slender volume very enjoyable to read as pleasure. Its well documented material makes it wonderfully informative. Many excellent reports of heroic and sometimes tragic outcomes of man's intrepid adventures. The topics cover everything from the ocean depths (pressure and cold) to deserts to outer space. A great read.

Average customer rating:

A recommended novel
Healing Feminist Literature
A New Writer to Watch
A Novel of Life, Love, and Growing Up Not to be Missed
a touching story

Night Diving
Michelene Esposito
Manufacturer: Spinsters Ink Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1883523524

Book Description

Night Diving is both a young woman's coming-out story and a 30-something coming-of-age journey that proves you can go home again. It is the story of Rose Salino, a thirty-year-old woman living the San Francisco chic lesbian lifestyle, who loses her job as a chef and her lover on the same day. The next day her grandmother dies and in the course of returnng to her hometown for a funeral, she sees her childhood best friend and first love, Jessie. They begin to rekindle their friendship, which later becomes a romance. Through a series of crises Rose is forced to look at her life and find the courage to create a future that is true to her real self and her heart.

The story is also a family saga. Rose's mother is manic-depressive and much of the first half of the novel is focused on Rose's understanding of and coping with her mother's period of illness. These sections also highlight Rose and Jessie's relationship as young girls, including Jessie's wild acting-out in response to her father's sexual abuse. In the end, with the support of friends and the hard lessons born from life's challenges, Rose takes the risks to create a life she wants rather than the life she thinks she's "supposed to have."

Customer Reviews:

A recommended novel.......2007-05-26

From the book back cover:
"Rose Salino is living the perfect lesbian-chic lifestyle in San Francisco. But then she loses both her lover and her job on the same day. Twenty-four hours later, her grandmother dies and so Rose must journey home for the funeral.
Once there, she meets up with Jessie, her best friend from childhood - and her very first love. Through the crises she faces, Rose is forced to look at her life and find the courage to create a future that is true to her self and to her heart.
Will Rose take the risks necessary to create the life she wants - rather than the life she thinks she's "supposed to have"?"

When she was nine Rose's world fell apart as her mother got sick with manic-depression. Now at thirty she is again seeing her carefully controlled world fall apart, and is forced to look at her life. In Night Diving, Rose dives into her past and tells us of her childhood and of growing up with her best friend Jessie, who like her is the product of a dysfunctional family. But the question Rose has to face in the book is how to find the courage to finally take risks, in order to move out of her carefully constructed controlled life into the world of possibilities that a life with Jessie represents.
Night Diving deals with issues such as mental illness, sexual abuse and cancer but Esposito manages to keep her writing balanced and with enough sense of humour so that the book doesn't turn into a melodrama. I highly recommend this book.

Healing Feminist Literature.......2004-10-01

While dealing with difficult and disturbing issues like breast cancer, incest, alcoholism and homophobia, "Night Diving" is nevertheless not so much a depressing book about victims, as it is a joyous book about survivors. "Night Diving" is an empowering read, which will touch your heart, make you weep and make you laugh. Like all the wonderful, feminist novels from Spinster's Ink, it is a stellar book!

A New Writer to Watch.......2004-09-13

Written in a first person narrative, Night Diving follows thirty year old Rose Salino, as she heads home to Long Island to attend the funeral of her grandmother. While there she runs into her childhood friend and first love, Jessie. Seeing her childhood haunts and her old friend brings up painful memories for Rose as she comes to terms with the effect her childhood fears have had on her as an adult.

If all of that sounds like a terrible downer, never fear, Micheline Esposito injects the whole thing with her distinctive wry sense of humor. Even with the serious subject matter at the heart of the book, I found myself laughing out loud through most of it. Micheline Esposito has a way of describing Rose's life that reminded me of David Sedaris and his darkly comedic essays on his wacky life and family.

So if you're looking for a book that will make you cry but laugh while you're doing it, give Night Diving a shot. I liked it well enough that I'll be on the lookout for more of Micheline Esposito's work.

A Novel of Life, Love, and Growing Up Not to be Missed.......2004-07-30

In Rose Salino's life, bad things happen in threes: she's dumped by her lover, loses her job (because she worked with her lover at a restaurant she had always considered "ours" - which wasn't), and then her grandmother dies necessitating a flight from San Francisco to her childhood home in Long Island, NY. And so begins a journey in the present as well as in the past.

Rose's first person tale is bookended by events in the present, while the bulk of the novel tells the story of her youth. In a crisp, fresh, and often funny voice, she tells of her early struggles with her manic-depressive mother, of feeling alone and outside the pale during her school years, and most of all, of her friendship with Jessie who not only had a screwed up mother similar to Rose's, but also carried hidden wounds of traumatic abuse.

Much of Rose's description of her childhood is moving, and with her fine prose, Esposito never lapses into melodrama. "I was nine the first time my mother got sick, leaving me with an emptiness that clawed at me like some little trapped animal. It was as if some faceless man had taken her away in the middle of the night and because I could not yet feel where she ended and I began, had taken me with them. I awoke one morning to find her shell and a hugeness that grew louder and louder and more panicky inside me. The first aloneness" (p. 34).

The way Rose attempts to make sense of her world, to grow up, to find a place for herself is by terms touching and comical. I laughed out loud when Rose describes her friend's enormous Newfoundland dog: "She was, I was sure, some mix of black bear and water buffalo, definitely bigger and heavier than me, with long black fur and a mouth I envisioned snapping off my leg in one jagged bloody chomp" (p. 22).

Esposito has a delightful sense of timing as well as the ability to evoke character, particularly Rose's, in ways that kept me glued to the book. For instance, at her grandmother's funeral, she nervously connects back up with childhood friend Jessie, and thinks this: "I can't even tell you why I'm so damn nervous except that I don't know where to start. You can't start from where you left off because that was a dozen years ago and you end up feeling like William Randolph Hearst clutching a sled, rocking back and forth in some dark room, whispering, 'Rosebud, Rosebud'" (p. 116). Esposito's ability to juxtapose flashes of comedy into the story is illuminating in the way that unexpected lightning allows for brief glimpses into dark places.

By the time the events of the past catch up with the quandaries and disasters of the present, it's clear that Rose has the ability to rise above her circumstances-but will she make the right choices in order to do so? She has the possibility of a life with Jessie, but can she let go of her hang-ups and really communicate with the people she loves? "Love is knowing a person's tender spots, the places where the skin is transparent, not fully formed, like the clear membrane that holds a yolk round even after you separate it from the white. Love is standing guard over a beloved's yolk" (p. 219). Musings like that are just lovely and endeared Rose to me forever. How she gets to the point where she can stand over someone else's yolk, much less her own, makes for a wonderful story. This is a book that shouldn't be missed. ~Lori L. Lake, reviewer for The Independent Gay Writer and Midwest Book Review

a touching story.......2004-01-06

It is clear that Esposito is a therapist because there is a lot of talk about therapy in this novel. And she throws a lot of issues--cancer, family relationships, career, friendships, romance, incest--into one little novel. But, somehow she makes it all work. Jessie and Rose have a compelling friendship/relationship, and the friends and family that are in their lives are also interesting. Most refreshingly, Jessie's father isn't depicted as the big, bad wolf. He's just human like the rest of us.

Average customer rating:

All the praise is well deserved: great guide and beautiful
An excellent review of Florida Keys diving
This is the best diving book about the Florida Keys.
Excellent Dive Book!

Florida Keys Dive Guide

Manufacturer: Abbeville Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0789203944

Book Description

Described as "an excellent investment for divers" in the press, Abbeville's exciting scuba diving travel books combine the best in underwater photography with the most complete, in-depth, and practical information on the world's most popular diving sites.

Three-dimensional maps in full color illustrate twenty-seven of the most spectacular dives in the Florida Keys. These maps offer what no book has ever before provided: the information needed to plan your dive down to the last detail. You can review the exact layout of each site--including depths, sizes, and distances between reefs and wrecks or any hazards--and even the lighting conditions for optimum underwater photography. The short chapters covering each dive provide crucial data about depths, currents, weather variables, and plant and animal life. The book ends with a full-color visual encyclopedia of the most common fish that inhabit the area.

New to this updated edition is coverage of the Spiegel Grove, the world's largest artificial reef, sunk off of Key Largo and opened to divers in June 2002.

The experts' lively text has been vetted by Diving Science and Technology Corp. (DSAT), which is a corporate affiliate of Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI), making these the most reliable guides for the expert as well as the first-time diver.

Other Details: Full color throughout.

Customer Reviews:

All the praise is well deserved: great guide and beautiful.......2005-01-26

This book can please every scuba diver interested on the Florida Keys. Great layout; nice, glossy paper; loads of inspiring pictures; super cool maps of EACH dive site; expert advice from knowledgeable writers who clearly love the Keys.
For such a beautiful book - though not hard-cased, it can fare well on a diver's coffee-table - this guide is a GREAT value for the money. This book provides substantial help in preparing for your first trips to the only living reef in the continental USA. It can also inspire the seasoned Florida diver to remember the good times underwater and how precious the Keys are.
A fitting tribute to a nature wonder... a most useful guide for a diving vacation... Highly recommended!

An excellent review of Florida Keys diving.......2000-01-22

I found this book to be an excellent review of diving sites in the Fla. Keys. Not only did it describe sites but the drawings describing dives from boats was excellent! I cannot say enough about how well this book is presented and it should be an invaluable resource for all of us who dive in the Keys

This is the best diving book about the Florida Keys........1999-07-24

This is the best diving book about the Keys in this website. It is a fascinating look at many of the bigger reefs in the Keys. We used this book as a reference source for creating our website. It is filled with beautiful photos, all taken on the reefs described therein. It has diveplan maps to follow, history, fish descriptions, and many other helpful facts relevant to divers.

Excellent Dive Book!.......1998-11-02

As a beginning diver, I found this book to be very informative. It lists practically every reef in the Florida Keys. I especially like the reef maps which show what there is to see at what depth. Then after each reef map, there are photos of what there is to see at that site. It is a paperback, but it has glossy pages and great photos. I thought it was an excellent book - at a value price!

Average customer rating:

Handbook on Hyperbaric Medicine
Daniel, Ed. Mathieu
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Hyperbaric Medicine Practice, Second Edition-Revised

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ASIN: 1402043767

Book Description

It is now ten years since the first Handbook on Hyperbaric Medicine was published. During this time there have been many major advances: our understanding of the actions of hyperbaric oxygenation has been elucidated by several studies; clinical practice is becoming more scientific; various consensus-derived organisational and operational recommendations and guidelines are now widely accepted.

As for Europe, these positive developments are largely due to the continuous action of the European Committee for Hyperbaric Medicine (ECHM). One of the most successful initiatives was the start of a specific European research action sponsored by the EU Co-operation in Science and Technology (COST) programme. The specific COST Action for hyperbaric medicine, COST B14, has been completed and has provided the impetus for the publication of this new Handbook.

This book is a reference document for researchers and clinicians, and is also of excellent use for both teachers and students.

Basic Diving Physics and Applications (Diversification Series)

Average customer rating:

Diving for the Physicist
boring but does the trick
In-depth review of physics applied to diving

Basic Diving Physics and Applications (Diversification Series)
B. R. Wienke
Manufacturer: Best Pub. Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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General | Science | Subjects | Books

Diving Science: Essential Physiology and Medicine for Divers
Technical Diving in Depth
The Technical Guide to Gas Blending
DAN Pocket Guide to First Aid for Scuba Diving
Reduced Gradient Bubble Model in Depth

ASIN: 0941332411

Book Description

A scientific monograph on diving physics and associated math relationships. Topics are related to diving protocols and operational procedures. First basic principles are presented; this is followed by practical applications and detailed results. Designed for the commercial diver, instructor, hyperbaric technician, or underwater researcher searching for a contained reference and especially the doctor, physiologist, physicist, chemist, mathematician, engineer, or biologist.

Customer Reviews:

Diving for the Physicist.......2007-09-19

This book may benefit a physicist but probably offers little benefit to a diver or dive instructor. It has been a while since my math and physics classes and I found this volume daunting. If elementary particel interacton, hydrodynamics or maxwell equations are of interest to you then get this book. If you looking for usefull dive information or explanations look elswhere.

boring but does the trick.......2006-07-16

This book isn't exactly a leisurely reading book, but if you're interested in knowing just how everything works it will do the job.

In-depth review of physics applied to diving.......1999-11-09

Obviously written for readers with a sound scientific background, this book presents a quasi exhaustive review of physical principles applied to diving. Mathematical data are fully presented. The problem, as usual with B.R. Wienke publications, is that the presentation is quite "dry", written in a very cursive, non pedagogical way. You will often need to take your time and to read very slowly and carefully to follow the author. Leaving that aspect aside, the book is a real sum of what you need to know if you want to dive with mathematical awareness ...

Average customer rating:

Where no large-format camera has gone before...
How would you like to explore the mysteries of caves?
Where in the world to cave
A great guide to caving
Super cave explorers

Caves: Exploring Hidden Realms (Imax)
Michael Ray Taylor , and Ronal C. Kerbo
Manufacturer: National Geographic
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0792279042
Release Date: 2001-03-01

Amazon.com

If you were to travel to the Amazon, say, or the source of the Nile, you would likely find the people there wearing corporate logo-branded T-shirts and listening to the latest pop hits on the radio. Using a GPS device or satellite photos, you can track your location just about anywhere on the face of the planet. Given globalism and the ease of travel to once-remote places, where is a would-be flag-planting adventurer to go these days?

The answer, writes Michael Ray Taylor in this intriguing book, is inward: inside the earth by way of the millions of caves that pierce its surface. Following an international team of fellow cavers--men and women in peak physical form and apparently without fear--his narrative takes us deep within the ice caves of Greenland; a vast underground labyrinth of rivers and chambers in Mexico's Yucatan; a cave on a cliff wall overlooking the Colorado River near the Grand Canyon, one that no human had ever before entered; and other great caverns of North America. High-quality (and sometimes astounding) full-color images accompany the text, offering views that usher us into a world of blind snakes, bats, strange geological formations, and uncanny sights that few surface-dwellers have been privileged to see.

Caving is not merely adventure for its own sake, Taylor notes. "Over the past decade," he observes, "scientists have been surprised to learn that in the deepest recesses of the Earth are repositories of exotic microbes ... far more varied in types of species and their individual strategies for survival than all the plants of an equatorial rain forest." Some of these microbes, he suggests, may deliver chemicals for fighting disease; they also deliver important evidence about the history of life on the planet.

But, all that said, caving offers plenty of thrills, and Taylor's book does a superb job of capturing both the science and the adventure of a journey to the center of the earth. --Gregory McNamee

Customer Reviews:

Where no large-format camera has gone before..........2006-04-13

CAVES: EXPLORING HIDDEN REALMS by Michael Ray Taylor (0792279042, $35.00) provides some outstanding cave shots from caving experiences around the world. The book accompanies a new film 'Journey Into Amazing Caves' which was released in March 2001: many of the hundred-plus photos are from the film and highlight places no large-format camera has gone before.

How would you like to explore the mysteries of caves?.......2004-04-25

Many of us have probably been very fascinated with caves since we were small children. However, we probably never had the actual experience of exploring caves nor will we ever undertake such a voyage to many of our planet's uncharted regions.

Perhaps, the wisest and safest way to satisfy our curiosity pertaining to the study of caves, or as it is called, Speleology, is to seek out a good reference text. National Geographic Society's coffee-table book entitled CAVES: EXPLORING HIDDEN REALMS, authored by Michael Ray Taylor, would certainly meet the criteria as being one of the most outstanding introductions to the mysteries of the underground.

The tome is the companion text to the McGillivray Freeman Imax film by the same title.
Taylor separates the book into three distinct sections, ice, water and earth in order that we have a general understanding as to where caves are to be located as well as their respective formations. As the author states: "the skin of the world hides many caves. All are profoundly shaped by, and profoundly affect, the nature of the land overhead. Caves are to a surface landscape as veins and capillaries are to a human face-the hidden structure of an inseparable whole."

The ice section introduces us to the caves of the heartland of Greenland where glossy photos provide us with fantastic visual entertainment that convey to us the beauty of these caves as well as the danger constantly prevalent within. Moreover, we are also clued in to the many animal creatures found within these subterranean enclaves such as the tardigrade. It is to be noted that the study of life in caves is known as biospeleology.

Our adventure moves onto to some of the caves discovered beneath the Yucatan or the section dealing with water. One only has to stare at the introductory photos to this chapter and we can appreciate the utterances of the cavers when they assert: "we are amid the wildest scenery we had yet found in Yucatan; and, besides the deep and exciting interest of the ruins themselves, we had around us what we wanted at all other places, the magnificence of nature."

The final stop on our journey delivers us to the caves of the earth where we explore the deepest one in the United States, Lechuguilla located in New Mexico. We also venture into the caves of Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia or as they are termed the TAG region. The spectacular photo of the Lechuguilla certainly reaffirms the statement that "a picture is worth a thousand words."

Enhancing the usefulness of the book are the many articles pertaining to the study of caves that have been contributed by several well-known experts. These short essays also include those of the author, Michael Ray Taylor, who has explored more than 600 caves in expeditions that have taken him around the world.

Bon voyage on your next expedition into the world of caves where all you will need is a good chair and Michael Ray Taylor's brilliant book.

Norm Goldman Editor of Bookpleasures.com

Where in the world to cave.......2003-07-04

I am always left breatheless at the majestic beauty of every cave I am blessed to enter. This book gives wonderful descriptions of caves and the pictures in this coffeesque style book are the icing on the cake.

A great guide to caving.......2002-12-12

This book is very well written with lovingly detailed chapters devoted to the many splendid cave networks dotted around the world. There's a great section on the flora and fauna of the underworld, as well. I went potholing in Kak Canyon once, and saw a couple of chutney ferrets, all thanks to this book. Incredible creatures - and I wouldn't have known they were there until I read this.

Super cave explorers.......2002-02-14

I really liked this book. It has good pictures for people who want to be a cave explorer. It tells you a good description of the caves these people explored. I really liked the fact that they explored ice, water and earth caves. I think students that are studying caves would really like this book

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