Jörg Wunderlich (ed.) (2012): Fifteen papers on extant and fossil spiders (Araneae)

This book consists of fifteen papers (considered below as Chapters) on fossil and extant arachnids, mostly spiders. Most papers are written by the editor, two papers in cooperation with Peter Jäger and with Søren Toft, and a single one by Peter Jäger. Chapters 1 and 2 are identification keys to the European genera of the families Zodariidae and Corinnidae, respectively

Device for installing rocket engines

A device for installing rocket engines is reported that is supported at a cant relative to vertical by an axially extensible, tiltable pedestal. A lifting platform supports the rocket engine at its thrust chamber exit, including a mount having a concentric base characterized by a concave bearing surface, a plurality of uniformly spaced legs extended radially from the base, and an annular receiver coaxially aligned with the base and affixed to the distal ends of said legs for receiving the thrust chamber exit. The lifting platform rests on a seat concentrically related to the pedestal and affixed to an extended end portion thereof having a convex bearing surface mated in sliding engagement with the concave bearing surface of the annular base for accommodating a rocking motion of the platform

[Review of] Jacqueline Jones Royster, ed. Southern Horrors and Other Writings: The Anti-Lynching Campaign of Ida B. Wells, 1892-1900

Ida B. Wells (Barnett) was the first writer to document the lynchings of African Americans. Born in 1862, at age sixteen she had to raise her four brothers and sisters after the 1878 deaths of her parents. Still, she managed to attend Rust College and Fisk University. While teaching school in Memphis, Wells first began writing articles for a church newspaper and then contributed to other Baptist newspapers. She used the pen name of Iola, and the popularity of her articles led to her becoming co-owner of the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight in 1889. It was the lynching of three of her friends that caused her to question the lies surrounding lynchings of African Americans -- that African American males were punished for raping white women. On March 9, 1892, she published the editorial Eight Men Lynched in the Free Speech that would force her to leave Memphis

[Review of] Philip Durham and Everett L. Jones. The Negro Cowboy

Except for books such as The Negro Cowboys, the African American West remains an enigma to most Americans. Popular media continue to perpetuate the stereotype of a white West, in spite of the fact that some of the earliest explorers accompanying the European invasion were of African descent. Beginning in 1501 with the Spanish conquest of Mexico, Africans were there. They were with Balboa when he discovered the Pacific, with Cortes in Mexico, with Cabeza de Vaca, Coronado, and others. Estevanico (Little Stephen) first explored New Mexico and Arizona

[Review of] S. Allen Counter. North Pole Legacy: Black, White, and Eskimo

According to the Guiness [Guinness] Book of Records, Eskimos Egingwah, Ootah, Ooqueahand Seegloo, along with African American Matthew Henson, became the first humans to stand on the North Pole. The date of their famous journey to where no one has gone before was April 6, 1909. However, they were denied the status of co-discoverer with Robert E. Perry, who came along about forty-five minutes later. Perry\u27s reward to Henson for reaching the Pole before him was to ignore Henson from that time. The names of the Eskimos were also dropped from history