Flight Lines

A trans-world journey with an extraorindary shorebird—from Australia's southern ocean to the Arctic and back—that explores the mysteries of the natural world and its power to heal. As the sun lowered and turned Gulf St Vincent fiery, they each called a high-pitched 'peeooowiii!', flashed their black wing-pits, spread their tail skirts and took flight... In a luminous new boook, Andrew Darby follows the odysseys of two seemingly-humble Grey Plovers, little-known migratory shorebirds, as they take previously uncharted ultramarathon flights from the southern coast of Australia to Arctic breeding grounds. On these death-defying flights they dodge predators, typhoons, exhaustion, and countless other dangers before they can breed...and then survive the jrouney all over again and return south to their feeding grounds. But the greatest threat to these, and other long-distance migrants on the flyway, is China's "dragon economy," which is engulfing their vital Yellow Sea staging spots. In Flight Lines, we meet the dedicated people of all nationalities and backgrounds working to save these intrepid birds, from Russia to Alaska, from the rim of the Arctic Sea to the coasts of the Southern Ocean. Out of their hard-won science Darby finds hope for the birds—an unexpected bright light for our times. But his journey to understand these marvellous birds almost ends when he is suddenly diagnosed with an incurable cancer. Then he finds science coming to his rescue too, as his own story and the journey of these little birds intersect in an unexpected and beautiful way.

United Airlines Flight 823 was a scheduled flight from Philadelphia to Huntsville with en-route stops at Washington and Knoxville. This particular flight crashed on July 9th 1964 with the loss of 34 lives and the destruction of the aircraft, a Vickers Viscount. The book contains the subsequent accident report that examines the history of the flight and examines the possible causes of the accident.

As an analyst, philosopher and militant, Félix Guattari anticipated decentralized forms of political activism that have become increasingly evident around the world since the events of Seattle in 1999. Lines of Flight offers an exciting introduction to the sometimes difficult and dense thinking of an increasingly important 20th century thinker. An editorial introduction by Andrew Goffey links the text to Guattari's long-standing involvement with institutional analysis, his writings with Deleuze, and his consistent emphasis on the importance of group practice - his work with CERFI in the early 1970s in particular. Considering CERFI's work on the 'genealogy of capital' it also points towards the ways in which Lines of Flight anticipates Guattari's later work on Integrated World Capitalism and on ecosophy. Providing a detailed and clearly documented account of his micropolitical critique of psychoanalytic, semiological and linguistic accounts of meaning and subjectivity, this work offers an astonishingly fresh set of conceptual tools for imaginative and engaged thinking about capitalism and effective forms of resistance to it.

“The pilots were attempting to return to Honolulu but with the failure of both engines on the right wing of the UAL 747, combined with massive structural damage, there was a very real possibility that they would be required to ditch. The thought of ditching into the ocean in the dark of night is daunting. The flight attendants could have secured themselves in their jump seats but instead stood in the aisles to prepare their passengers. The roar of the air rushing by at a speed of 190 to 200 knots was deafening in the cabin. The flight attendants could only “mime” the instructions for passengers to look at their Safety Cards and to demonstrate the donning of life vests.” “The Aloha 737 was severely damaged, literally now a convertible and was in emergency descent with speeds of 280 to 290 knots. The roar of the wind was deafening. The forward flight attendant had been sucked out of the cabin as it ruptured. The aft flight attendant was seriously injured. The mid flight attendant, suffering minor injuries and being the only one able, rather than securing herself in her jump seat, she crawled up and down the aisle calming her passengers and assisting the injured.” Flight Attendants Lost offers a fascinating look into what went on inside the airplane from actual aircraft accident and incident case studies spanning decades and countries. The book covers the intense training, the ongoing vigilance, the behind the scenes team work and the committed actions of flight attendants in emergency situations. It uncovers the complexities of aircraft safety design and makes sense of the reasons behind safety rules and regulations making this book an educational must read for air travellers. Flight Attendants Lost is not only an eye-opener but is a reassuring read that will make you look at flying differently. It is also a beautifully written memorial tribute to the hundreds of flight attendants who, over the years, have given their lives In the Line of Duty.

Julie Salverson grew up listening to the secrets of others. As an adult she works to help people tell their own difficult and painful histories by turning them into plays and performances, but eventually the trauma of these stories overwhelms her. Buckling under the weight of her work and on the verge of losing faith in anything, Salverson discovers a connection between Canada's north and the atomic bombsthat fell on Japan, which becomes the start of a ten-year journey. In Lines of Flight, she traces that radioactive trail from a small village outside Toronto to Great Bear Lakein the Northwest Territories and onto Hiroshima.