Cold Fusion (HOW) [Hardcover]

Dr. Doris Haggis-on-Whey (Author), Benny Haggis-on-Whey (Contributor), Eliana Stein (Designer)

Book Description

Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up | Series: HOW

For many years the scientific and educational communities have wondered and worried about the possibility that semi-sane scholar-pretenders would find the means to publish a series of reference books aimed at children but filled with ludicrous misinformation. These books would be distributed through respectable channels and would inevitably find their way into the hands and households of well-meaning families, who would go to them for facts but instead find bizarre untruths. The books would look normal enough but would read as if written by people who should not have written them. Sadly, that day is upon us. The fourth book in the HOW series, Cold Fusion, is to be feared. Like its predecessors, Giraffes? Giraffes! and Animals of the Ocean, Cold Fusion must also be kept far from the young people in your life. This book reveals the secrets of cold fusion, one of the most controversial scientific pursuits that can be conducted in a bathtub.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 64 pages
• Publisher: McSweeney's (January 27, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1934781215
• ISBN-13: 978-1934781210
• Product Dimensions: 12.1 x 9.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #170,964 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Devious And Scummy Like A Snake With An Abacus, August 23, 2009

By 

Robert I. Hedges - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Cold Fusion (HOW) (Hardcover)

"Cold Fusion" is another brilliant entry in annals of scientific knowledge from Dr. Doris Haggis-On-Whey with assistance from her husband, Benny. This volume explains all aspects of cold fusion, including some that even Pons and Fleischmann could have never imagined.

"The History of Cold Fusion" is presented as a colorful timeline on pp. 10-11, and is a good starting point for understanding this book, superimposed as it is over a timeline of Eddie Money's career (note the proximity of the release of Money's monster hits "Baby Hold On" and "Two Tickets to Paradise" to Dr. Mizuno's observation of charged particles from palladium deuterides, which he attributed to instrumentation error). Other vital areas of exploration include a handy table explaining why Tim Conway, Helen Hunt, and General Pervez Musharraf will never be good at cold fusion, a poem in epic verse about cold fusion by Lord Byron, the Russian invention of fruit fusion, and a thorough analysis of why birds are bad at building superconductors.

For anyone who enjoys satire, humor, or science, the Haggis-On-Whey series can expand your world view in many new and unexpected ways, and for that reason alone I recommend it. Besides, without Dr. Doris and Benny to help me I would still be attempting to confirm a tritium sample with a mass spectrometer, and we wouldn't want that now, would we?

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Slightly disappointing, June 20, 2009

By 

Austenparker "Life is too short to read bad b... (Well, where are YOU?) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Cold Fusion (HOW) (Hardcover)

If you're looking for the inspired wackiness which characterized the first book of this series (and was mostly re-captured in the third book) - you will be disappointed. Sure, the non sequiturs are there - but the phrase "too much of a good thing" comes to mind. Perhaps the humor is more apparent to anyone working in a field where much time is spent in a laboratory; for the non-lab-dwellers, this book is only so-so.

There are moments when the brilliance of the first and third books shine through, but, for the most part, the laughs are fewer and farther between. Overall, a rather disappointing entry into the increasingly uneven Haggis-On-Whey series.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, preposterous, beautiful., February 17, 2009

By 

Lia Louis "Leah" (San Francisco, CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cold Fusion (HOW) (Hardcover)

Another smart book from Dr. Haggis-on-Whey. Marvelously dry and filled to the brim with stupendous non-sequitur.