Brass Ring Research Articles

Comments: Grabbing the Brass Ring To Power the Demand for Data Centers and Generative AI

_ “There’s no way to get there without a breakthrough.” These were the words of OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman at a sideline meeting with Bloomberg at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, in January, referring to the energy required to power generative AI, data centers, cloud computing, and to support required equipment and infrastructure. As industries swiftly transition into a fresh era of digital revolution, spearheaded by the fast adoption and advancement of generative AI technology, the demand for energy to power data centers and required infrastructure skyrockets. Research firm IDC estimated that global data center energy consumption reached 382 TWh in 2022, with a forecast surge to 803 TWh by 2027. To contextualize, 382 TWh is roughly equivalent to France's annual electricity consumption, while 803 TWh is comparable to Russia's usage (International Energy Agency, 2019 data). Currently, data centers consume approximately 1 to 2% of global electricity, is expected to rise to 8% by 2030, according to WEF. Struggling to keep pace are the sources of energy required to fuel this transformation, and the transmission and distribution constraints of power grids. In 2010, IDC observed a 50% gigaleap in global data production to 1.2 zettabytes (1.2 trillion GB), with projections of annual data production reaching 35 zettabytes by 2020, a milestone reached in 2018 instead. By 2020, 59 zettabytes of data were generated. IDC anticipates newly created data to soar to 175 zettabytes by 2025, notching a 146-fold increase over 15 years. Striking a Secure and Sustainable Balance The voracious energy consumption of data centers is sounding alarms about the need for additional sustainable and efficient power generation sources. SPE-218905, presented last month at the 2024 SPE Western Regional Meeting, dove into the oil and gas industry’s role in assuring “digital decarbonization.” Noting the expanded use of AI, data centers, and cloud computing in our industry, the authors wrote, “The need for energy transition has triggered an unprecedented momentum for developing renewable energy sources. With its historical and current contributions to the energy and products market, all indications are that the petroleum Industry needs to continue its efforts in the production of hydrocarbons while also actively exploring ways to substantially reduce GHG emissions such as methane and carbon dioxide.” Major companies are intensifying digital transformation efforts, reshaping petroleum industry processes. This includes reservoir characterization, drilling design, and economic calculations, which rely on high-performance computers—increasing energy consumption and emissions. Data analytics and AI aid in demand forecasting, inventory management, and predictive maintenance, reducing disruptions and environmental damage, thereby cutting carbon emissions. Automation, drones, robotics, and IoT sensors enhance operations, safety, and efficiency while minimizing environmental impact. Data reign supreme as the "ultimate authority" across the entirety of our industry's operations, guiding the evolution of our practices to foster cleaner operations, prevent downtime, and gain efficiencies. The authors added this is crucial for remaining competitive and improving the industry's reputation, particularly amidst stringent environmental regulations in the US. They recommend actions to advance the sustainable implementation of digital technologies while also conserving power consumption and minimizing emissions. Among the suggestions are power management systems to track and optimize energy usage, the use of renewable and low-carbon energy sources, prioritizing partnerships with cloud providers committed to sustainability, and improving hardware sustainability by using durable materials and energy-efficient designs throughout its life cycle. Leading the development of breakthroughs are operators exploring alternative energy sources and their implementation. Diamondback Energy, the largest independent producer in the Permian Basin, is working with Oklo to develop fast fission nuclear reactors. SPE 215407, presented at the 2023 SPE/IATMI Asia Pacific Oil and Gas Conference, described using low-cost green power for unconventional oil recovery and sharing energy-storage facilities with data centers. A hybrid solution integrates a traditional grid with mobile microgrids between shale-oil fields and data centers. Developing alternative power supplies with wide-scale reliability, dependability, and minimization or elimination of GHG emissions within a feasible capex/opex scenario is the brass ring of sustainability and energy security—and data are helping us get there. For Further Reading Data Centers Around the World: A Quick Look by Brian Daigle, US International Trade Commission. SPE 218905 - Digital Decarbonization in the Oil and Gas Industry by I. Ershagi, University of Southern California; Donald L. Paul and Andrei Popa, Chevron Technology Center. https://doi.org/10.2118/218905-MS SPE 215407 - Unconventional Fields Recovery Enabled by Large-Scale Green Power Supply Based on Multi Microgrids and Energy-Storage Sharing With National Data Centers by Z. Tong, X. Wang, and D. Weng et al., PetroChina. https://doi.org/10.2118/215407-MS Data Science Has Exploded Across the Industry Over the Past 75 Years by Adam Wilson, JPT.

German brass for Benin Bronzes: Geochemical analysis insights into the early Atlantic trade.

Utilizing geochemical analysis, this study identifies the sources of European brass used in the casting of the renowned Benin Bronzes, produced by the Edo people of Nigeria. It is commonly believed that distinctive brass rings known as "manillas", used as currency in the European trade in West Africa, also served as a metal source for the making of the Bronzes. However, prior to the current study, no research had conclusively connected the Benin artworks and the European manillas. For this research, manillas from shipwrecks in African, American and European waters dating between the 16th and 19th Century were analysed using ICP-MS analysis. Comparing trace elements and lead isotope ratios of manillas and Benin Bronzes identifies Germany as the principal source of the manillas used in the West African trade between the 15th and 18th centuries before British industries took over the brass trade in the late 18th century.

Physical Education’s Real Brass Ring…Time to Get the Field Back on Track

This Viewpoint looks at Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) in physical education and the authors contend that making SEL the primary learning domain for school physical education programs is problematic. The article shares thoughts and provides suggestions about how to re-focus the discourse about the central goals for physical education programs.

As Road To Real-Time Fracturing Optimization Is Paved, Shale Producers Approach On-Ramps Cautiously

To say that the shale sector is on the cusp of a new era, one where fast-flowing streams of real-time well data and on-the-fly fracture designs are the norm, is not something one does lightly. It’s a bold declaration. It represents a step change that engineers have been told is just around the corner for several years. They’ve been promised software that will churn out truly optimized recipes of proppant concentration, rate, total volume, etc. to match each fracture stage’s piece of the rock. In a neat world, this nets better production from good stages while injecting less capital into bad stages—the ultimate win-win for a sector that spends 60–70% of well costs on the completion. We can pluck example after example from industry literature to prove the incremental existence of such tailor-made well pads. However, the mostly small-scale cases are far from representative of the aggregate. For some, the absence of scale fuels skepticism over whether real-time optimization will ever amount to much more than avoiding screenouts and other costly operational drags. Then again, history is not always the best predictor of the future. In this context, it discounts a slate of technologies and methods that didn’t exist 5 years ago or were still coming into their own. Some of these innovations are now part of the toolbox that operators are using to reach for the brass ring that is real-time optimization at scale. “Much like self-driving cars, we see the future of a self-driving oil field that’s self-optimizing and operated autonomously—an element of this would be automating the fracturing process,” said Rob Fast, the chief technology officer of the Bakken Shale producer Hess Corp. He added that this vision of the future could be coming soon. Hess and its service provider are scheduled to start the first field trials of an automated fracturing system sometime in June. While sharing details of the upcoming test, Fast emphasized that “this project is a collaboration project that combines automation and optimization and provides advanced measurements to optimize completions and well spacing.” Fast was speaking during the SPE Hydraulic Fracturing Technology Conference plenary where he said the decision to invest in automated fracturing comes after Hess spent more than a decade producing some of the industry’s most in-depth tight reservoir studies. Through that work, the operator has apparently concluded that right sizing fractures will require a reliable set of eyes and ears in the subsurface. That translates to an array of permanent fiber-optic cables and permanent downhole pressure gauges, along with temporary “dip in” fiber deployments. Traditionally, such a big data-giving diagnostic program would be deemed a “science project,” the widely used euphemism for the sector’s illuminating but hard-to-scale look-back studies. But Hess sees dividends if the diagnostic jewelry helps achieve a new ambition to complete 40% fewer wells in the Bakken while still maintaining current recovery estimates. “Serious beef,” Fast said of the sought-after target.

Reaching for the Brass Ring

Reaching for the Brass Ring

An Experimental and Numerical Analysis of the Compression of Bimetallic Cylinders.

This paper investigates the upsetting of bimetallic cylinders with an aluminum alloy center and a brass ring. The influence of the center-ring shape factor and type of assembly fit (interference and clearance), and the effect of friction on the compression force and ductile damage are comprehensively analyzed by means of a combined numerical-experimental approach. Results showed that the higher the shape factor, the lower the forces required, whereas the effect of friction is especially important for cylinders with the lowest shape factors. The type of assembly fit does not influence the compression force. The accumulated ductile damage in the compression of bimetallic cylinders is higher than in single-material cylinders, and the higher the shape factor, the lower the damage for the same amount of stroke. The highest values of damaged were found to occur at the middle plane, and typically in the ring. Results also showed that an interference fit was more favorable for preventing fracture of the ring than a clearance fit. Microstructural analysis by scanning electron microscopy revealed a good agreement with the finite element predicted distribution of ductile damage.

Development and investigation of a regenerator for a reverse Stirling cycle based cryogenerator

The regenerator is considered to be the heart of the Stirling cycle gas liquefier and it is an efficient compact reversing type heat exchanger. Its packing material is first cooled by the cold gas displaced from the expansion space to the compression space and subsequently this matrix material in turn cools the working gas displaced from the compression space to the expansion space. A regenerator is successfully developed by using copper wool matrix having 50 gauges (0.022 mm). The outer and inner casing has been fabricated from fiber glass reinforced plastic. The matrix material is filled in the casing and sealed with a brass ring of 24 gauges (0.51mm). The regenerator is tested successfully by replacing the original regenerator from ZIF-1002 Cryogenerator machine and by liquefying air. The present paper describes the details of the Regenerator development, its testing and evaluation of its relative effectiveness and the result is encouraging.

Ultrasonic Inspection Techniques Possibilities for Centrifugal Cast Copper Alloy

Abstract The article deals with ultrasonic testing possibilities of the copper alloy centrifugal casts. It focused on the problems that arise when testing of castings is made of non-ferrous materials. Most common types of casting defects is dedicated in theoretical introduction of article. Ultrasonic testing technique by conventional ultrasound system is described in the theoretical part too. Practical ultrasonic testing of centrifugal copper alloy cast - brass is in experimental part. The experimental sample was part of centrifugally cast brass ring with dimensions of Ø1200x34 mm. The influence of microstructure on ultrasonic attenuation and limitations in testing due to attenuation is describes in experimental part. Conventional direct single element contact ultrasound probe with frequencies of 5 MHz, 3.5 MHz and 2 MHz were used for all experimental measurements. The results of experimental part of article are recommendations for selecting equipment and accessories for casting testing made of non-ferrous metals.

Effect of Sulfur-Containing Primers for Noble Metals on the Bond Strength of Self-Cured Acrylic Resin.

This study investigated the effect of sulfur-containing primers for noble metals on the shear bond strength of self-cured acrylic resin after thermal cycling (TC). Four pure metals (Au, Ag, Cu, and Pd) and type IV Au alloy were either untreated, or treated with one of the five sulfur-containing metal primers (V-Primer, Metaltite, Alloy Primer, Metal Link Primer, and Metal Primer Z). Afterwards, a brass ring was placed on the metal surface and filled with self-cured acrylic resin (n = 10). The bond strengths were measured after 24 h (TC0) and after 2000 thermal cycles at 4–60 °C (TC2000). Three-way ANOVA and Tukey compromise post hoc tests were used to analyze the data (α = 0.05). All of the sulfur-containing primers significantly improved the resin bond strength as compared to that of the non-primed group at TC0 regardless of the metal type (p < 0.05). However, at TC2000, the bond strengths between the resin and the five metals significantly decreased with respect to the values obtained at TC0 regardless of the primer (p < 0.05). The sulfur-containing metal primers, except for Metal Link Primer, were found to be more effective for improving the bond strength between the self-cured acrylic resin and Ag as compared to the other three pure metals (p < 0.05). The bond strengths between the resin and Au and type IV Au alloy at TC2000 were the highest ones when Metal Primer Z was used.

Shift Relief.

There it was. The gold star. The elusive brass ring. That red velvet cupcake riding a unicorn down a perfect rainbow of academia. Shift relief. After fellowship, I took a position in a prestigious academic department with a top-notch residency program. I worked full-time clinically and began building my career as an EM academician. Which is to say, I started looking for ways to get shift relief. And I got it. Soon after being hired, I became the director of the global health track for the school of medicine. This role came with opportunities to teach, build curriculum, mentor, and importantly, shift buy-down. Ladies and gents, I have won EM academia! I have shift relief! Yes, I did have more time for nonclinical duties. A lot of this time, however, was spent devoted to activities that, after some soul-searching, I have come to admit do not speak to my strengths. Student mentorship, development of curricula, and meetings about goals and objectives are noble academic pursuits. I am in awe of those who do them tirelessly and effectively. They are also, unfortunately, not my passion. Hey, but I have this great shift relief. Also, I took my first job with an infant and had another baby during my time as the global health track director. I'll spare you the specifics but I am not one of those moms who love the newborn period. I struggled. Hard. With breastfeeding, with sleeplessness, with staying afloat among the e-mail traffic and the meetings and the lectures and the evaluations clamoring for more small sessions, skills nights, journal clubs, and mentoring. Meanwhile, those newborns evolved into really interesting little people. I wanted to hang out with them and see what they had to say. But the shift relief … My role in the residency reduced to teaching on shift and a few haphazard attempts to put together global health experiences for the residents. I was showing up for work relying on my unit clerk to show me how to admit someone. I stopped reading. I phoned it in as a clinician educator as I fretted about my academic to-do list. But at least I had shift relief. So I gave it up. I work more in the ED now, but decreased my total work hours. So now I get paid less, work more shifts, and hear a lot of what those interesting little people in my house have to say. Did some of my colleagues think I was nuts to give it up? Yup. Did I second-guess it? Absolutely. Do I really like red velvet cupcakes? Yes I do. My new definition of “shift relief” is the feeling I have when I work without residents and know I took care of my patients well. Of giving real feedback to the resident who just busted her a** for eight hours and would be staying behind another two to chart. I still don't know how to admit patients, but now I know the names of the clerks who are nice enough to help me. Now I focus on what I love and what I am good at and not what I think I should love or be good at. I love global health fieldwork and trying to save the world a little. I love the challenge of clinical medicine, of finding something to give to these incredible residents, of being a part of this residency family. Most importantly, I love those interesting little people in my house, and I even think I am reasonably good at raising them. Relief.

Grab the brass ring [The big picture

Grab the brass ring [The big picture

P20. Reduction of post-implant planning time of temporary I-125 LDR implants

Introduction Groote Schuur Hospital has a well-established low-dose rate (LDR) brachytherapy programme using I-125 seeds. Temporary implants in and around the eye, tongue, floor of mouth, palate or for keloid scars are custom-made for each individual. A pre-implant plan is done to determine seed positions and activities, while a post-implant plan is done to determine the actual dose distributions in the patient. Method and materials The pre-implant plans generally consist of a number of trains loaded with I-125 seeds in a geometry specified by the oncologist. Different activity seeds are used to create an optimal pre-implant dose distribution. Post-implant plans are currently worked out on orthogonal X-rays. The magnification factor is determined from specially placed brass rings and each seed has to be individually matched on each X-ray. This is a very time-consuming task, especially for implants with large seed numbers. Once the seeds have been identified, the correct activities have to be assigned to each seed. An investigation is under way to find a more efficient way of determining the seed co-ordinates from a post-implant CT scan. Results Initial investigations show that this is a feasible alternative in many cases for determining the seed co-ordinates. The 3D viewing option of the CT data also helps in assigning the seed activities. This may not be a suitable alternative for all implants, especially for some of the orbital implants that have a lead disk inserted under the eye lid for shielding purposes, and also to hold additional seeds. The lead disc, as well as the clamped ends of the seed trains, introduce artefacts on the CT scans, possibly obscuring individual seeds. Conclusion In cases where this post-planning option proves to be a suitable alternative, post-planning times are reduced significantly.

Building a Physician Culture for Healthcare Transformation: A Hospitalʼs Leadership Challenge

Engaging and integrating physicians has become the veritable "brass ring" for many hospital systems: many attempts and few actual wins. This is especially true in California's managed care environment and for public entities such as Palomar Health in Escondido, California. Our commitment to engage and integrate physicians continues to be a vital element of a larger cultural shift toward delivery of care that puts the patients' needs first. A key determinant of success has been the ability to align a diverse medical staff culture with administrative priorities. This alignment involves a carefully executed strategy and a structure to build a collective identity among diverse players. Palomar Health is in the third year of the journey. Some of the critical milestones have been the implementation of a physician leadership development process, creation of a physician onboarding process to codify the desired physician culture, delineation of roles and expectations for physician leadership, and formalization of dyad and triad partnerships between physicians and their clinical and administrative partners.

Intercepting Cancer Communiques: Exosomes as Heralds of Malignancy

In clinical oncology, detecting and treating disease as early as possible is the brass ring to be grasped. Does a new test based on circulating exosomes bring it closer for patients with pancreas cancer?

Staying Afloat: Risk and Uncertainty in Spanish Atlantic World Trade, 1760–1820 by Jeremy Baskes

Reviewed by: Staying Afloat: Risk and Uncertainty in Spanish Atlantic World Trade, 1760–1820 by Jeremy Baskes Richard Salvucci Jeremy Baskes, Staying Afloat: Risk and Uncertainty in Spanish Atlantic World Trade, 1760–1820. Redwood City, CA: Stanford University Press, 2013. 408 pp. 25 tables, 13 figures. ISBN: 9780804785426, $70.00 (cloth); ISBN: 9780804786355, $70.00 (E-book). This is the most economically significant study of the Spanish empire’s Atlantic trade to appear in many years, and it is determinedly revisionist. Jeremy Baskes bases his analysis on a staggering amount of “old fashioned” archival work, particularly in Spain. Moreover, the broad array of topics considered makes it simply impossible to do them equal justice in a brief review. To the contrary, its breadth and erudition make the book worthwhile. I focus here on the main message. For generations—at least since Clarence Haring’s, if not before—historians have regarded the Spanish exclusif as a mode of ensuring the profitability in limited markets. Merchants in Seville, Cádiz, Mexico City, and Lima were permitted to trade through a regulated system of convoys, fairs, and markets. The interest of the Crown, of course, was to share in their rents. Historians [End Page 469] have called the contrivance a “monopoly” or the flota system. For three centuries, and making due allowance for pirates, smugglers, and “authorized” interlopers, this was how the system worked: increased scarcity, artificially high prices. The erosion of consumer surplus at the hands of the monopolists was predictable. To oversimplify his argument, Baskes thinks we have got it backward, and have confused effect with cause. In reality, the evidence of excess profits in the trade was a result of survivors’ bias. Success was hard to come by, and one who had it was richly rewarded. That is because the Atlantic trade was conducted under almost impossibly risky conditions, or under pervasive uncertainty. The high variance in outcomes and the substantial risk of failure logically dictated that a successful venture was extraordinarily profitable, but not on a risk-adjusted basis. As much as any historian, Baskes demonstrates that trading to the Indies was a roll of the dice. As he says, “luck played an immeasurable role in the fortunes of long-distance traders” (p. 154). You could not predict much of anything because thin markets are inherently unstable, and because the information lags then operating were simply grotesque. If the world you thought you were selling to still existed when your cargo arrived—even if your erstwhile political allies were still friends, or that peace after war had not broken out—you were lucky, and only ex post, skilled. What sensible capitalist would participate in a trade plagued by too much competition and abundance, as some Mexican merchants complained after the free trade reforms in the 1790s? For the skillful, or just the lucky, there was a brass ring. For most, there was at least some semblance of stability, a higher probability of a normal return. As Baskes observes, “Regulations were probably more effective in preventing bankruptcies than in generating fortunes” (p. 58). They were about reducing excess volatility, not creating excess profits. (All this is painstakingly documented and reproduced in online appendices at http://www.sup.org/stayingafloat.) Dismissing Baskes’s argument on ideological grounds, or out of sheer sheer ignorance, as some will surely do, is simply not going to cut it. I do not think that Baskes is wrong in his revisionism. In fact, I think he is far more right than not, even if cause and effect in complex economic interactions are notoriously hard to pin down. I do think, however, that he overstates his case. For instance, Baskes concludes, “the notion that importers were in any position to collude and fix prices is baseless” (p. 58). “Baseless” is legalese, not historical analysis, and the contention rests on considering a restricted number of pricing models or by looking at traded commodities at a certain level of aggregation. Again, Baskes painstakingly and plausibly considers the number of merchants involved in various fleets and fairs. There were, [End Page 470] he avers, simply too many of them to form an effective cartel to restrain trade, and the five...

Drag finishing of sensitive workpieces with fluidized abrasives

A new mass finishing technology, namely drag finishing of brass (Cu–30wt.% Zn) rings with fluidized abrasives, is reported. A new equipment, which combines the typical features of the drag finishing machines to hold the workpiece with the moving abrasives of fluidized beds, was designed. The equipment was validated by performing several experimental tests varying rotary speed and processing time. The evolution of the surface morphology of the workpieces, their mass loss and dimensional accuracy after processing were assessed after each finishing step. The designed equipments allowed to finish with a high level of accuracy and in short time range the brass rings. Material removals and out-of-tolerances of the workpieces could be limited once the appropriate settings of the process were selected. Low energy requirements, lack of any residuals after processing and facile operations make the fluidized bed assisted drag finishing industrially sustainable and very promising in several manufacturing domains.

Effect of defocusing distance on the contaminated surface of brass ring with nanosecond laser in a 3D laser scanning system

Defocusing distance plays a key role in laser cleaning result and can be either positive or negative, depending on the focus position relative to the sample surface. In this paper, we investigate the effect of the defocusing distance on the cleaning efficiency of oxidized brass surface. The oxide layer from the surface of a brass ring was processed with a three dimensional (3-D) dynamically focused laser galvanometer scanning system. The relationship between removal efficiency of the oxide layer and the defocusing distance was analyzed. The sample surface topography, element content before and after the laser cleaning were analyzed by a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), the surface quality after laser cleaning was analyzed by a Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), the chemical constituents of the oxide layer on the sample surface after being processed with different defocusing distances were examined by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES). The results show that the ratios of Cu/O and Zn/O reach the maximum of 53.2 and 27.78 respectively when the defocusing distance is +0.5mm. The laser pulses will lose the ability to remove the oxide layer from the substrate surface when the defocusing distance is larger than ±2mm.

Trapped in Their Own Rings: Padaung Women and Their Fight for Traditional Freedom

Trapped in Their Own Rings: Padaung Women and Their Fight for Traditional Freedom Jessica Theurer Abstract The Burmese, Padaung tribe, are known internationally for their long brass rings that collapse their collarbones, creating the illusion of an elongated neck. The tribe has been persecuted for generations, but since they have relocated to Thailand as refugees, they are trapped in their tourism-driven camps. The women now have a decision to make: take off their neck rings so they can relocate, or stay true to their tradition, and provide for their families through tourism. The Thai village officials have refused medical care, education, rightful wages, and technology to keep the camps as primitive as possible for the tourists. This paper also discusses the Burmese military regime and how they gained power, as well as how the Padaung tribe became Burmese refugees in Thailand. This paper argues that as more individuals view the Padaung refugee camps as simply tourist attractions, more women and their families will continue to suffer. By spreading awareness, the Thai government will be forced to award relocation and essentially release these women from the decision between their freedom and their cultural tradition. Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/ijgws.v2n4a3

The Joe M. Smith Collection from the Roseborough Lake Site (41BW5), Bowie County, Texas

The Joe M. Smith collection is held by the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin. It appears to have been given by Mr. Smith to A. T. Jackson in the early 1930s, around the time of The University of Texas excavations at the nearby Eli Moores site (41BW2). The collection is said to have come from the Rochelle Plantation, which is an earlier name for the Roseborough Lake site (41BW5). The Roseborough Lake site is on an old meander of the Red River “that was cut off in 1872 and named Roseborough Lake." It lies a few miles west of other important Caddo sites, a few miles west of Texarkana in Bowie County. The Roseborough Lake site is a large historic Caddo village occupied from the 17th century until the late 18th century, with habitation features and cemeteries. It also is the location of a Nassonite post established by the French in the 1720s, known by the Spanish as San Luis de Cadohadacho. Investigations at the Roseborough Lake site by Miroir and Gilmore recovered Historic Caddo ceramics, mainly shell-tempered, of the types Emory Punctated-Incised, McKinney Plain, Keno Trailed, Simms Engraved, Natchitoches Engraved, Womack Engraved, and Avery Engraved, along with brushed, incised, punctated, and red-slipped body sherds and clay figurines and pipes. The chipped stone tool assemblage included Fresno and Maud arrow points, drills, large knives, many end/side scrapers, as well as a diorite celt. European trade goods are particularly abundant at the Roseborough Lake site, and they include iron axes and scrapers, iron bridle bits and knives, iron strike-a-lights, scissors, iron kettle pieces, pendants, many flintlock gun parts, gunflints, lead balls, brass rings, tinklers, bells, and rivets, brass and iron arrow points, metal buttons, green wine bottle glass and mirror glass, faience, majolica, and delft ceramics, along with many glass beads (n=2958) and shell beads (n=18). Substantial samples of animal bones are also present in the archaeological deposits at the site, along with carbonized maize cob fragments.

And That’s the Way it No Longer Is

And That’s the Way it No Longer Is Thomas Doherty (bio) Douglas Brinkley. Cronkite. New York: HarperCollins, 2012. 819pages. Illustrated, bibliographical glossary, notes, and index. $34.99. “I was sitting home alone one night/ in L.A./watching old Cronkite on the seven o’ clock news,” crooned Bob Dylan (“Black Diamond Bay,” 1976) in one of the many pop-cult shout-outs to the mustached face of American television news during that bygone age of three-network hegemony. Likewise, in Ron Howard’s Apollo 13 (1995), when the NASA astronauts gather at the home of Jim Lovell to watch the moon landing on television, no channel surfing will be permitted: the Great White Father of the airwaves, everybody’s Uncle Walter, is the choice by acclamation. The popular historian Douglas Brinkley, a professor of history at Rice University and himself a regular talking head on television, gives full biographical treatment to the most firmly anchored of video anchormen. Cronkite hosted The CBS Evening News from 1962 to 1981, sitting comfortably atop the Nielsen ratings for most of the run, before reluctantly turning over the desk to former protégé and future bête noir Dan Rather). Even for viewers too young to remember, Cronkite’s visage will be a permanent archival accessory for much of the history of the era he reported on. In Brinkley’s telling, he is more than a bearer of tidings; he shaped the course of American history. The sheer size and bulk of this doorstop of a tome is both a testimony to Cronkite’s longevity and a bid to place him shoulder to shoulder on the bookshelf alongside the thick volumes lauding Edward R. Murrow, the glamorous patron saint of broadcast journalism. Brinkley sees his subject as nothing less than “the preeminent television newsman of the twentieth century” (pp. 547–48)—although, as with any CBS-centric story, Murrow hovers just out of camera range, never quite exorcised from the control room. Born in 1916 in St. Joseph’s, Missouri, and reared in Kansas City, Missouri, and Houston, Texas, Cronkite was the only son of an alcoholic, underachieving father and a feisty, self-reliant mother. An indifferent student at the University of Texas, he found his footing working on school newspapers, small-town dailies, and upstart radio stations. In 1937, as a wire-service reporter for the United Press (UP) syndicate, he got his first big exposure in the national press [End Page 728] by reporting on the horrific gas explosion at a public school in New London, Texas, that killed 295 people, most of them children. “The passerby heard men weep, heard rasp-like voices oddly strained in unaccustomed efforts to be tender,” read his terse, Hemingwayesque wire copy. Decades later, Cronkite still called the New London tragedy “his most memorable reporting assignment” (p. 58). Brinkley is exceptionally good at showing how the crucible of Cronkite’s apprenticeship as a hard-charging, fact checking “Unipresser” forged his journalistic sensibility ever after. The book starts to kick in when the eager-beaver young journalist grabs the brass ring as a foreign correspondent for United Press in London during World War II. As a charter member of the legendary band of ink-stained brothers dubbed “the Writing Sixty-Ninth,” he pumped out patriotic puff pieces on the gallant boys of the Eighth Air Force, accompanied B-17 crews on bombing missions over Germany, and drank too much. UP marketed the Cronkite brand, boldfacing his byline and hyping their intrepid journalist as “Dean of the Air War.” During this time, Cronkite also began in a serious way to cultivate his radio chops. “With his firm, clear, and penetrative voice, Cronkite sounded distinguished on radio,” observes Brinkley. “He had a genius for accentuating syllables in a compelling way” (pp. 104–5). Hearing a voice of the future, Murrow tried to recruit him into the ranks of his soon-to-be legendary “boys.” Amazingly, Cronkite turned him down. Later, at CBS, he would say semi-jokingly that he belonged to the “Murrow-Ain’t-God-Club,” a sentiment tantamount to heresy in the corridors of Black Rock. Nonetheless, he nicked his famous sign-off (“. . . and that’s...