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Flotsametrics and the Floating World
- How One Man's Obsession Revolutionized Ocean Science
- Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
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Publisher's summary
Curtis Ebbesmeyer is no ordinary scientist. He's been a consulting oceanographer for multinational firms and a lead scientist on international research expeditions, but he's never held a conventional academic appointment. He seized the world's imagination as no other scientist could when he and his worldwide network of beachcomber volunteers traced the ocean's currents using thousands of sneakers and plastic bath toys spilled from storm-tossed freighters.
Now, for the first time, Ebbesmeyer tells the story of his lifelong struggle to solve the sea's mysteries while sharing his most surprising discoveries. He recounts how flotsam has changed the course of history - leading Viking mariners to safe harbors, Columbus to the New World, and Japan to open up to the West - and how it may even have made the origin of life possible. He chases icebergs and floating islands; investigates ocean mysteries from ghost ships to a spate of washed-up severed feet on Canadian beaches; and explores the enormous floating "garbage patches" and waste-heaped "junk beaches" that collect the flotsam and jetsam of industrial society.
Finally, Ebbesmeyer reveals the rhythmic and harmonic order in the vast oceanic currents called gyres - "the heartbeat of the world " - and the threats that global warming and disintegrating plastic waste pose to the seas...and to us.
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Story
"Forget the Titanic; this sub wreck is hot," says the Wall Street Journal. Award-winning journalists Hicks and Kropf offer new insights into the dramatic history and mysterious disappearance of the Hunley, the first submersible to sink another ship. The Hunley represented one of the major technological breakthroughs of the Civil War, and it has fascinated many to the point of obsession ever since its disappearance.
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Great Civil War history
- By Randall E. on 11-10-03
By: Brian Hicks, and others
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War of the Whales
- A True Story
- By: Joshua Horwitz
- Narrated by: Holter Graham
- Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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War of the Whales is the gripping tale of a crusading attorney who stumbles on one of the US Navy’s best-kept secrets: a submarine detection system that floods entire ocean basins with high-intensity sound - and drives whales onto beaches. As Joel Reynolds launches a legal fight to expose and challenge the Navy program, marine biologist Ken Balcomb witnesses a mysterious mass stranding of whales near his research station in the Bahamas.
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Legal Drama - better than fiction
- By W. P. Brown on 08-23-14
By: Joshua Horwitz
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The Last Fish Tale
- The Fate of the Atlantic and Survival in Gloucester
- By: Mark Kurlansky
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 6 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Fishing at sea, an ancient trade and a way of life that has defined coastal towns throughout history, may be coming to an end. The culture and traditions of coastal Britain and of seagoing nations everywhere are now threatened with extinction. Celebrated author Mark Kurlansky explores the fate of our oceans and the decline of our most ancient coastal enterprise.
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Love me some Kurlansky!
- By Eric Walden on 09-08-15
By: Mark Kurlansky
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Sealab
- America's Forgotten Quest to Live and Work on the Ocean Floor
- By: Ben Hellwarth
- Narrated by: Christa Lewis
- Length: 13 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Sealab is the underwater Right Stuff: the compelling story of how a U.S. Navy program sought to develop the marine equivalent of the space station - and forever changed man's relationship to the sea. While NASA was trying to put a man on the moon, the U.S. Navy launched a series of daring experiments to prove that divers could live and work from a sea-floor base.
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An excellent story of adventure and discovery.
- By R. Smith on 08-11-15
By: Ben Hellwarth
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In the Kingdom of Ice
- The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette
- By: Hampton Sides
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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In the late nineteenth century, people were obsessed by one of the last unmapped areas of the globe: The North Pole. No one knew what existed beyond the fortress of ice rimming the northern oceans. On July 8, 1879, the USS Jeannette set sail from San Francisco to cheering crowds in the grip of "Arctic Fever." The ship sailed into uncharted seas, but soon was trapped in pack ice. Two years into the harrowing voyage, the hull was breached. Amid the rush of water and the shrieks of breaking wooden boards, the crew abandoned the ship.
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Superb tale that unravels at an iceburg's pace
- By Mel on 03-19-15
By: Hampton Sides
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Brilliant Beacons
- A History of the American Lighthouse
- By: Eric Jay Dolin
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Set against the backdrop of an expanding nation, Brilliant Beacons traces the evolution of America's lighthouse system, highlighting the political, military, and technological battles fought to illuminate the nation's hardscrabble coastlines.
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Great book about Lighthouses
- By Anastasia on 04-25-21
By: Eric Jay Dolin
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The Secret Token
- Myth, Obsession, and the Search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke
- By: Andrew Lawler
- Narrated by: David H. Lawrence XVII
- Length: 14 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1587, 115 men, women, and children arrived at Roanoke Island on the coast of North Carolina to establish the first English settlement in the New World. But when the new colony's leader returned to Roanoke from a resupply mission, his settlers had vanished, leaving behind only a single clue - a "secret token" etched into a tree. What happened to the Lost Colony of Roanoke? That question has consumed historians, archeologists, and amateur sleuths for 400 years. In The Secret Token, Andrew Lawler sets out on a quest to determine the fate of the settlers.
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trying to capitalize on race relations
- By Phil on 07-16-19
By: Andrew Lawler
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Last Train to Paradise
- Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad That Crossed an Ocean
- By: Les Standiford
- Narrated by: Del Roy
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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The paths of the great American robber barons were paved with riches, and though ordinary citizens paid for them, they also profited. Les Standiford, author of the John Deal thrillers, tells how the man who turned Florida's swamps into the playgrounds of the rich performed the almost superhuman feat of building a railroad from the mainland to Key West at the turn of the century.
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A Pleasant Surprise
- By Roy on 04-05-09
By: Les Standiford
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Erebus
- One Ship, Two Epic Voyages, and the Greatest Naval Mystery of All Time
- By: Michael Palin
- Narrated by: Michael Palin
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Michael Palin brings the fascinating story of the Erebus and its occupants to life, from its construction as a bomb vessel in 1826 through the flagship years of James Clark Ross’s Antarctic expedition and finally to Sir John Franklin’s quest for the holy grail of navigation - a route through the Northwest Passage, where the ship disappeared into the depths of the sea for more than 150 years. It was rediscovered under the arctic waters in 2014.
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Engrossing story
- By Anonymous User on 10-01-24
By: Michael Palin
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Deep Descent
- Adventure and Death Diving the Andrea Doria
- By: Kevin F. McMurray
- Narrated by: P. J. Ochlan
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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On a foggy July evening in 1956, the Italian cruise liner Andrea Doria, bound for New York, was struck broadside by another vessel. In eleven hours, she would sink nearly 250 feet to the murky Atlantic Ocean floor. Thanks to a daring rescue operation, only 51 of more than 1,700 people died in the tragedy. But the Andrea Doria is still taking lives. Considered the Mt. Everest of diving, the Andrea Doria is the ultimate deepwater wreck challenge.
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A must read for every deep diver
- By DocYinYang on 10-20-19
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The Curse of Oak Island
- The Story of the World's Longest Treasure Hunt
- By: Randall Sullivan
- Narrated by: Braden Wright
- Length: 16 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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The Curse of Oak Island is a fascinating account of the strange, rich history of the island and the intrepid treasure hunters who have driven themselves to financial ruin, psychotic breakdowns, and even death in pursuit of answers. And as Michigan brothers Marty and Rick Lagina become the latest to attempt to solve the mystery, as documented on the History Channel’s television show The Curse of Oak Island, Sullivan takes listeners along to follow their quest firsthand.
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The ultimate Osk Island show add on
- By Amazon Customer on 03-27-19
By: Randall Sullivan
What listeners say about Flotsametrics and the Floating World
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Doug
- 01-22-19
Painful to listen to
Between the author adding a bunch of unnecessary information, and the narrator's robotic voice, as much as I tried I couldn't get more than three chapters into this book before I decided cut my losses and stop listening.
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Overall
- Jo
- 01-27-11
Interesting flotsam on the waves
This books is rather like his subject matter - full of fascinating tidbits floating on a undulating sea of interesting and less interesting backstory, autobiography, self-promotion and gentle rant. It would be better if it had slimmed down on the autobiography (particularly in the opening chapters) and increased some of the background hard science, with more reference to, and explanation of, the work of other oceanographers. The stories of following the flotsam, such as the sneakers and tub toys were fascinating, and the talk of beach comber fairs made me want to get out there and beachcomb, but I felt that the overall there was a much better book inside here somewhere.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Julie Thomas
- 06-11-12
Great science education, humorous, fascinating
What made the experience of listening to Flotsametrics and the Floating World the most enjoyable?
This book presents Ebbesmeyer's research on the ocean with great humor, making it enjoyable to get this piece of science education. I plan to listen to the book again.
What was one of the most memorable moments of Flotsametrics and the Floating World?
The use of accidently dumped floating Nike tennis shoes and rubber tub toys to reveal ocean current dynamics.
What about Eric Michael Summerer’s performance did you like?
Summerer's performance was "invisible", i.e., we weren't conscious of the narration as we listened during a two-day drive. No distracting or annoying quirks. So his presentation was great for this type of book.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Yes. Fascinating and entertaining, while addressing profoundly worrisome issues such as the great garbage patches in the ocean.
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