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Andis Kaulins' Profile
Customer Reviews: 4
New Reviewer Rank: 444,187
Classic Reviewer Rank: 158,913
Helpful Votes:
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Reviews Written by
Andis Kaulins (Traben-Trarbach, Rheinland-Pfalz Germany)
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The Best Book on the Pharaohs, December 11, 2008
This book has been translated into nearly 20 languages thus far and is in my opinion the best book ever written on the pharaohs. The layout of the book is wonderfully intuitive and Chronicle of the Pharaohs is one of the most consulted books in my own personal library as a general reference tool on Egypt and the Pharaohs.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
The Best Book available on the History of Star Names, March 18, 2005
Richard Hinckley Allen's nearly 600-page book Star Names, as written on the copyright page, is "an unabridged and corrected republication of the work first published by G.E. Stechert in 1899, under the former title: Star-Names and Their Meanings."
This is its great advantage for any student or researcher of the history of astronomy, because it is untainted by the oversimplification which resulted from the artificial fixing of the number, names and boundaries of the constellations by the International Astronomical Union. [...]
The scope of the book is enormous, covering a breadth of material found, e.g., nowhere on the internet, and that today is saying something.
Of great value are the extensive (but not perfect) nearly 75 pages of indexes (General Index, Arabic Index, Arabic Alphabet, Greek Index, and the Index to Author and Authorities).
The history of astronomy goes hand in hand with the manner in which the ancients organized the stellar heavens above them. We have dozens of books on the history of astronomy in our private library. This book is the best - by far - on the history of the names of the stars, and we use it regularly in our own work on the history of astronomy.
There are no sky maps in this book, it is all text, so that to fully appreciate what one is reading, it is absolutely essential to have 1) the movable precessional historical planispheres of Milton D. Heifetz, 2) a software astronomy program such as Starry Night Pro capable of being set back in historical time plus having an apparently accurate Delta-T value, which e.g. RedShift does not (we unknowingly bought but do not use RedShift for this reason), and (3) a detailed modern atlas of the stars, e.g. such as one by Patrick Moore. All of these can be found at Amazon. To find Heifetz, search "Heifetz Planispheres" at Amazon. To find Starry Night Pro, search just that. To find a good star atlas by Moore search "patrick moore atlas stars".
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InstaPundit.Com
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30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
InstaPundit is the Arnold Palmer of Blogging, January 26, 2005
InstaPundit, the blog of Glenn Reynolds, Professor of Law at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, is one of most popular blogs on the web judged by its traffic. Glenn is the Arnold Palmer of blogging and is known as "the BlogFather" for having made blogging popular and for having inspired countless other bloggers to turn to blogging. Many read InstaPundit for a quick overview of important issues of the day and rumor has it that it is even read in the White House.
The content of Glenn's immensely popular and highly informative InstaPundit is marked by high intelligence, by a tremendous breadth of subject scope and news coverage, and by the ability to bring events to life in a few short sentences. The postings are reliable and trustworthy in their factual content, to which Instapundit adds its touch of opinion-salt which may be too conservative for some, but if you read only what you believe to begin with, you are not going to learn too much.
The blog design is clear and also unique to the blog. There is a separate blog menu. The blog text and URL links are easy to read and postings are not only regular but prolific in amount. Since the purpose of blogs is (or should be) communication, Glenn's posts are marked by heavy linking to other blogs and websites. His main blog page format also includes a selective but lengthy blogroll of links to other blogs and bloggers.
Due to his profession, Glenn can not devote as much time to his blog as some blogger do. Hence, many postings do not have much depth of coverage or analysis and are superficial in nature, but Glenn knows this and actively recommends to his readers that they "read on" at other blogs where bloggers have more time to deal with his selected matters in depth.
InstaPundit has a clear political direction which sometimes gets in the way of rational objectivity, but in this Glenn is human, as we all are, and his partisanship is not offensive to us - as we are political centrists. We expect any blog to have a particular agenda and this is what blogging is all about. We also read the liberal blog Dailiy Kos. Every issue has two sides and you are better off knowing both of them.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
Author's Summary, January 13, 2004
Stars, Stones and Scholars is a pioneer analysis of prehistoric art, megalithic sites, astronomy, archaeology and the history of civilization. The book title is an intentional play on the title of C.W. Ceram's famous book, Gods, Graves and Scholars, which analyzed the history of archaeology from a quite limited perspective - starting with the Gods and the Graves, placing too much emphasis on the Scholars, and ignoring the study of the Stars and the workmanship of Stones which PRECEDED them. Stars, Stones and Scholars presents the decipherment of the megaliths (standing stones) as an ancient survey of the Earth by astronomy. The book presents initial proofs and discussion claiming that ancient megalithic sites are remnants of ancient local, regional and worldwide Neolithic surveys oriented to the stars. This hypothesis is not even speculative - in ancient days, no other means except astronomy were available for earthly orientation. The book's ca. 40 photographs, 240 drawings and 80 maps show how megaliths were carved and "sculpted" with figures in relief (what can still be made of them) and cupmarks (holes in the stones) to intentionally represent specific stars, constellations and asterisms, long before our modern astrological Zodiac was allegedly known. Megalithic sites from around the world are analyzed and shown to be part of ancient SYSTEMATIC survey systems covering entire regions ca. 3000 BC. The countries analyzed include, for example, England (all the major Neolithic sites including e.g. Stonehenge, Wayland's Smithy, Kents Cavern), Wales (all the major Neolithic sites including e.g. Paviland), Scotland (all the major Neolithic sites including e.g. the Clava Cairns), Ireland (all the major Neolithic sites including Newgrange, Knowth, Tara), Germany (most of the major sites including the Externsteine, Nebra, Gollenstein, Felsenmeer), Benelux (Weris), France (Carnac, Lascaux, Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc), Italy (La Spezia), all the Malta Temples (e.g. Tarxien and the Hypogeum), Scandinavia (Tanum), as well as individual sites in the Baltic, Russia, the Near East, the Far East (China - the Great Wall, and Japan - e.g. Asuka, Kanayama), Africa (e.g. the Central African Republic), Central and South America (Tikal), Oceania (Hawaii), the continental USA (Cahokia, Miami Circle) and Canada (the Peterborough Petroglyphs). Many of these sites are examined and deciphered in great detail showing a site such as the Peterborough Petroglyphs in Canada, for example, to be an ancient map of the heavens and the Ki'i Petroglyphs on the island of Hawaii to be an ancient map of the world. The intent of the author is not so much to convince the reader of the correctness of his analysis, but rather to urge the reader to look at ancient sites and stones differently than before and, for example, to examine old vacation photographs of Stonehenge or similar sites, and see the figures carved on the stones. As far as the interpretation of the megaliths is concerned, there is no question that this is the way of the future.
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(Traben-Trarbach, Rheinland-Pfalz Germany)
