Mosquito Hunter


Book Description

Mosquito Hunter is Clifford Muteros first autobiographical account. It focuses on the evolution of his entomological career, which was ignited in his early childhood from around the age of six up to the stage when he completed his PhD studies in insect science at age thirty. It is a one-of-a-kind narration that sets out geosocial, historical, and entomological facts with a brand of humor that has the potential to instruct and inspire a new generation of would-be natural scientists through the soft lore behind scientific investigation. Set mainly in a quintessentially rural farming community in Central Kenya and also in coastal Kenya, this narration reflects the abundance of stories based on village events, which were enriched by news and music from the wider world via the bridging power of radio. Significantly, Mosquito Hunter pays high tribute to the various mentors who inspired the author towards research of the natural environment. Chief among them is his father, Felix Mutero, whose all-round mastery of efficient farming practices provided a master class of sorts to the future scholar. Themes ranging from health, education, love, family, music, poverty, and professional politics are all woven into this telling of the making of that rare species, the African insect scientist.




The Mosquito


Book Description

**The instant New York Times bestseller.** *An international bestseller.* Finalist for the Lane Anderson Award Finalist for the RBC Taylor Award “Hugely impressive, a major work.”—NPR A pioneering and groundbreaking work of narrative nonfiction that offers a dramatic new perspective on the history of humankind, showing how through millennia, the mosquito has been the single most powerful force in determining humanity’s fate Why was gin and tonic the cocktail of choice for British colonists in India and Africa? What does Starbucks have to thank for its global domination? What has protected the lives of popes for millennia? Why did Scotland surrender its sovereignty to England? What was George Washington's secret weapon during the American Revolution? The answer to all these questions, and many more, is the mosquito. Across our planet since the dawn of humankind, this nefarious pest, roughly the size and weight of a grape seed, has been at the frontlines of history as the grim reaper, the harvester of human populations, and the ultimate agent of historical change. As the mosquito transformed the landscapes of civilization, humans were unwittingly required to respond to its piercing impact and universal projection of power. The mosquito has determined the fates of empires and nations, razed and crippled economies, and decided the outcome of pivotal wars, killing nearly half of humanity along the way. She (only females bite) has dispatched an estimated 52 billion people from a total of 108 billion throughout our relatively brief existence. As the greatest purveyor of extermination we have ever known, she has played a greater role in shaping our human story than any other living thing with which we share our global village. Imagine for a moment a world without deadly mosquitoes, or any mosquitoes, for that matter? Our history and the world we know, or think we know, would be completely unrecognizable. Driven by surprising insights and fast-paced storytelling, The Mosquito is the extraordinary untold story of the mosquito’s reign through human history and her indelible impact on our modern world order.










Mosquito Soldiers


Book Description

Of the 620,000 soldiers who perished during the American Civil War, the overwhelming majority died not from gunshot wounds or saber cuts, but from disease. In this ground-breaking medical history, Andrew McIlwaine Bell explores the impact of two terrifying mosquito-borne maladies---malaria and yellow fever---on the major political and military events of the 1860s, revealing how deadly microorganisms carried by a tiny insect helped shape the course of the Civil War.




Mosquito: Menacing the Reich


Book Description

On 15 November it came suddenly out of nowhere inches above the hangars with a crackling thunderclap of twin Merlins. As we watched, bewitched, it was flung about the sky in a beyond belief display for a bomber that could out perform any fighter. Well-bred whisper of a touch down, a door opened and down the ladder came suede shoes, yellow socks and the rest of Geoffrey de Havilland.The memories of Sergeant (later Flight Lieutenant DFC) Mike Carreck who was an observer with 105 Squadron when he first laid eyes on the new de Havilland Mosquito. This was an aircraft that would prove itself to be one of the most versatile and revered aircraft to fly with the RAF in World War II.This book is full of firsthand accounts from the crews that flew the Mossie in its roles as a bomber, long-range reconnaissance and low-level strike aircraft. The author has gathered together many of the most exciting operational reports that cover the period from the types introduction until the end of World War II. The text is interwoven with the background history of the personnel and squadrons, the purpose of the operations undertaken and their often devastating results.




The Dakota Hunter


Book Description

A tale of a lifelong passion for a WWII aircraft that changed the author’s life: “It is almost like an adventure novel except it is true” (Air Classics). This book tells the story of a Dutch boy who grew up during the 1950s in postwar Borneo, where he had frequent encounters with an airplane, the Douglas DC-3, a.k.a. the C-47 Skytrain or Dakota, of World War II fame. For a young boy living in a remote jungle community, the aircraft reached the proportions of a romantic icon as the essential lifeline to a bigger world for him, the beginning of a special bond. In 1957, his family left the island and all its residual wreckage of World War II, and he attended college in The Hague. After graduation, he started a career as a corporate executive—and met the aircraft again during business trips to the Americas. His childhood passion for the Dakota flared up anew, and the fascination pulled like a magnet. As if predestined, or maybe just looking for an excuse to come closer, he began a business to salvage and convert Dakota parts, which meant first of all finding them. As the demand for these war relic parts and cockpits soared, he began to travel the world to track down surplus, crashed, or derelict Dakotas. He ventured deeper and deeper into remote mountains, jungles, savannas, and the seas where the planes are found, usually as ghostly wrecks but sometimes still in full commercial operation. In hunting the mythical Dakota, he often encountered intimidating or dicey situations in countries plagued by wars or revolts, others by arms and narcotics trafficking, warlords, and conmen. The stories of these expeditions take the reader to some of the remotest spots in the world, but once there, one is often greeted by the comfort of what was once the West’s apex in transportation—however now haunted by the courageous airmen of the past.







Bulletin


Book Description