Craig B. Smith

Mr. Smith takes an interesting approach to pyramid construction; the Great Pyramid (and, to a lesser extent, the other pyramids) are analyzed from a project management point of view. Smith does provide answers to some of the usual questions about pyramid construction - how many men does it take to drag a two-metric-ton block up a ramp - but also answers, or at least reasonably informed speculation - about a great many questions that pyramid theorists usually don’t consider. For example, how many men would be required to prepare the ropes needed? How many bakers would be necessary to bake the daily bread ration, and is this a reasonable number given the assumed population and agricultural productivity of Old Kingdom Egypt? How often would copper tools have to be sharpened? The highlight of the book are series of tables, showing things like labor estimates (2 labor-days per core limestone block, 2.5 labor-days per cubic meter of rock moved during site leveling); workforce estimates (4000 stonemasons, 40 ropemakers, 4 doctors, and 22 site security); payment estimates (one beer jug and two bread loaves a day for a foundry worker, two and four for a scribe); and, as the masterpiece, a two page critical path chart for the entire operation. The net result is a workforce of between 26000 and 43000 (depending on when the project was started) and a construction time of ten years.

This is a pretty impressive piece of work. A lot of pyramids theorists have speculated about “how the Great Pyramid was built” but what they were actually doing is speculating on how the masonry blocks were moved, without considering any of the other factors. One salient fact Smith points out is that there’s a lot of variation, by masonry course, in the average size of blocks; the blocks in the lowest course average about 14500 kg each, but as you progress up the pyramid, blocks get smaller; higher courses are about 1500 kg. (Smith notes that there are anomalous larger courses - for example, the blocks in course 19 are about twice the size as those in 18 and 20 - and suggests that these are associated with interior features; course 19 is right at the base of the entrance passage and other “oversize” courses also appear to match up with things going on inside). This block size distribution causes a lot of other pyramid theorists to overestimate the amount of labor required; they usually use an average block size for work calculations. It also poses a logical objection to a lot of the wilder theories; why would the aliens cut so many different sizes with their laser saws and why would the Egyptcrete block makers build different molds for every layer?

There are a few problems, of course. Although Smith acknowledges help from Mark Lehner and Zawi Hawass, his basic Egyptology is weak; except for some specialized texts on (for example) Egyptian stone working, his bibliography is mostly “coffee table” works. This causes some unsupported statements - for example, that “Egyptian craftsmen were organized in guilds”. Although he’s devoted an amazing amount of effort to supporting his calculations (he consulted books on home brewing to see if his estimates of beer ration production rates were reasonable) a lot of his numbers are pretty soft. There’s a tacit assumption that’s made in almost all pyramid theory books, despite the example of Snefrw - that the Great Pyramid wasn’t started until the beginning of Khufu’s reign and that it was finished before its end; there’s been a recent suggestion that this wasn’t the case (pharaohs may have started multiple simultaneous pyramids, with their successors finishing the one that was farthest along and taking the next one for themselves). Finally, Smith falls prey to what might be called the “Intelligent Design” view of pyramid construction - the belief that every single feature in a pyramid must have deliberate design intent behind it; I suppose this is natural for a engineer.


Nevertheless, this is a very interesting and useful work. Even if all his numbers are wrong, Smith’s done very good work just by taking the Great Pyramid from a mystic artifact to a construction project. In fact, some of the Amazon reviewers suggest this would make a pretty good text for project managers.… (meer)

COUNTING THE DAYS:
POWs, Internees, and Stragglers of World War II in the Pacific

Six riveting, true stories—told largely in their own words—of people who survived the realities of imprisonment during World War II in the Pacific.

This is the story of six prisoners of war—Horyos, in Japanese. They were imprisoned during the conflict the Japanese called “The Pacific War.” As in all wars, the prisoners were civilians as well as military personnel. The selection in this book includes prisoners from both sides of the conflict.
During the Second World War, the probability of death as a prisoner of the Japanese was about 30 times greater than the probability of dying in combat. The Japanese army believed in the samurai code of bushido—“the way of the warrior.” Soldiers memorized this maxim: “Honor is heavier than mountains, and death is lighter than a feather.” It was the soldier’s duty to fight to the death, or, “To eat stones,” meaning to fall dead, face down on the battlefield.
Despite horrible treatment and abuse, the POWs described in this book survived, while others seemed to just give up and die. The prisoners could tell when someone gave up—they developed a “thousand yard stare,” stopped eating, seemed to withdraw within themselves to await death.
Japanese POWs were not tortured, beaten or starved—but suffered from their own perception of honorable behavior. Their first reaction to defeat was to commit suicide. When that was impossible, they suffered in other ways, in some cases remaining outcasts—stragglers—long after the end of the war.
Two of the prisoners were captured on the second day of the war and spent the entire war years in prison camps. First is Garth G. Dunn, who was a 20-year old U.S. marine stationed on the island of Guam and was among the American military personnel taken prisoner by the Japanese the day after Pearl Harbor was bombed. He survived four different camps, brutal beatings, starvation, and work as a slave laborer in a Japanese steel mill. His last camp was a hundred miles from Hiroshima, and he will tell you how the atomic bomb saved his life and the lives of thousands of other POWs held by the Japanese.
Then there is the remarkable story of Ensign Kazuo Sakamaki, captain of one of five midget submarines that tried to penetrate Pearl Harbor during the attack. All were lost, including their crews, with the exception of Sakamaki, the sole survivor. He suffered the ignominy of being Japanese POW number 1, captured the day after Pearl Harbor, and had the further humiliation of being the only Japanese POW for the first seven months of the war.
Simon and Lydia Peters were civilians, European expatriates living in the Philippines. Their story is typical of the thousands of non-combatants captured by the Japanese. Their house and belongings were confiscated and they were separated and placed in different camps. Eventually released by the Japanese, they reunited and fled to the jungle for a harrowing existence in a no-man’s land between Philippine guerilla raids and Japanese counterattacks until finally, on the verge of death, they were rescued by American forces. Theirs is an incredible story of love and survival.
Mitsuye Takahashi was a U.S. citizen of Japanese descent living in Malibu, California. Hers is another story of disruption, dislocation, loss of homes, jobs, and belongings, and love and renewal. She symbolizes the plight of the 100,000 Japanese-Americans who were unjustly imprisoned by America for the duration of the war.
Masashi Itoh was a Japanese farm boy who enlisted in the Japanese army shortly after Pearl Harbor and came to Guam near the end of the war. After the Japanese defeat, he remained hidden in the jungles of Guam, held captive by his own conscience and beliefs until 1960, 15 years after the end of the war.
These are the true stories—told largely in their own words—of a handful of ordinary people who were survivors. It is the story of them and their families, their suffering, their struggles to survive, the small daily triumphs that kept them going—and for some, their almost miraculous survival against the odds in greatly different circumstances.

Key Points/Quotes
• Excellent further reading for fans who want more after Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken
• Author Craig Smith travels to the locations of the events and sheds light on the lives of these six long after the war
• Extensive interviews by the author reveal the upbringing and outlooks that gave these six the strength and the skills to survive.
-Summary by Craig Smith… (meer)

Pyramid building as an exercise in civil engineering.

I approach all books dealing with ancient Egyptians with trepidation, owing to the nutters the topic seems to attract. Smith has no time for these reality-challenged theorists, and dismisses all notions of weird numerology and ancient astronauts in a few short sentences, before he gets to the good stuff: just how did these people build these things?

Smith uses his experience in civil engineering and construction management to lay out plausible scenarios, along the way making a forceful case that copper blades and a motivated workforce -- not slaves! -- was all that was really needed. That, and some planning and dedication.

If you're the kind of person who finds themselves fascinated by the details of construction projects, this is the book for you.… (meer)