No we're not gonna talk about adult films or fascism, just my current interests...  which might not be much better! Okay, problem is, in a word, or rather two, "poor" books.  I use poor because the forums have rules ya know!  Subjects:

• Mushroom cloud (A-bomb and H-bomb) and normal cloud formation
• Primitive aspects of Homo Spiens
• Paint shemes and uniforms of World War II

I'm sorry if my gripes are a product of shortsightedness, but I just can't help it.  You can never find any information on anything unless you dive into some national archives or something.  A while back I tried to find some information on the B-17.  It's the B-17 for pete's sake!  No offense towards Pete though. All I could ever find were general overviews.  It seems as if all the sites were quoting each other! All I could find was, "the B-17 is a World War II bomber"... "was instrumental in defeating the Third Reich and it's evils"... blah blah blah we know nothing about this subject.  Are there any books out there that cover the aforementioned topics?  The last one is self explanatory, but one and two are a bit more specific and therefore probably a little harder to find.  Ever since I saw a picture a mushroom cloud, I've been fascinated by how they've formed, so far, all I have is a theory (more on that later), and the only information I can find is the politically correct, biased information "horrors of the A-bomb".  Number two was sparked by a show I saw on PBS.  It talked about the primitive aspects of the sexes.  The only real fact I remember was the thickness of the chin signifies the person's testosterone level, making a thin chin in women desireable, and vice versa.  I did manage to find some good info on this subject though: an online essay disscussing the differences (stuff like skull shape) between Negroids, Caucasoids and Mongoloids (basically Africans, Europeans and Orientals).  Fascinating stuff.  I know this isn't exactly on everbody's plate of stuff to learn, so I wouldn't be surprised if no one replies.  Thanks if you've even bothered to read the whole thing through, anyway.

About that mushroom cloud theory...
After detonation, a normal explosion would spew ash, dust, smoke etc. every which way, but because of the immense heat involved with A/H bombs, all that mess floats directly upwards forming a stem.  After it's lost momentum, because all the particles haven't had enough time to spread away from each other, they do so then.  Once this takes place, the particles in the "cap" begin to slowly fall back down, forming the skirt.  To quote Moe from the Simpsons:
Quote:

Scorpion, I know what you mean mate.  There is plenty of beginners guide sort of stuff available in book and web site form, if you are looking for more in depth information my tip is to find the books without pictures in them.  If this sounds silly or patronising I apologise but I have wasted loads of money on books that are packed full of great photo's and illustrations but the text is poor.  Get a book on a subject with very few pictures in it and it tends to be more academically sound.

Will

605...I'm just curious.  How many libraries did you go to in your search?  lol

The  "mushroom" cloud is associated with nuclear detonations, but it is actually typical of a high explosive detonation - witness an image of an oil tanker, etc., blowing up.

Since a nuclear detonation is immensly more powerful, that's why you get the "full" mushroom - stem skirt and cap.

Sorry for the belated reply, a bad combat simulator, bad memory and a good war stategy game have taken their toll on my forum time! But, wow!  Thanks to X, Smoke, Hagar and Felix!  I honestly didn't think this post would get a reply.  First thing's first, Hyperion, I tried one.  Simple reason is, is to get anywhere I have to have my parents shuttle me around if I need (want) to go anywhere, and my parent consider anything more than a mile away too far.  Although I do remember going to Houston's downtown library, and I was looking for different subject matter (insects), I yeilded the same results.  My dad agrees with me, and I believe him, because even though he the minimum on the Wasp, he saw a lot of places.  His stories usually start off, "While my buddies were drinking and p---ing away their money, I saved it, and went into town and learned...".  Amongst his account are the "awesome" (in the dictionary sense of the word) libraryies he's visited.  Italy, Chile, New York etc.  At any rate he says the libraries in Houston are "Mickey Mouse" (in other words infantile).  Anyway...

I kinda just used the B-17 as an example, nut it's not as if I don't find it interesting anymore.  Just more weekend reading material! Thanks X. Hagar, many thanks for the links!  Great stuff.  The uniform site, which was good by itself, led me to a publisher's site with many promising books! Now to get money/a job... Smoke, I hear ya, the only book I've seen to combine pretty pictures and useful info is Duel for the Sky.  It even specifies what squadrons are being discussed.  Charts, everything! Felix, that tends to be the problem, I haven't seen all these explosions.  Everytime I've looked up explosion images on google, I get some weird goth site or 9/11, drying up the will to even look any further. Although now that I think about it, my theory doesn't explain H-bombs, in which the cap forms first, and rings in either bomb.