[school-discuss] etc ... releases version 1.0 of Construct-a-Book Vol. 1 "The Lost World" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

[mike eschman <meschman@engima.com>]

2002 @ etc ... engima technologies corp. http://www.etc-edu.com [10-14-2002]
mike eschman, meschman@engima.com

Construct-a-Book CD - Volume 1.
"The Lost World" by Arthur Conan Doyle

The construct-a-books provide all materials necessary to create a top-quality
hard cover book with an audio book cd/DVD supplement on the back inside cover.
These volumes contain everything you need, artwork, formatted text, table of
contents, indices, supplemental materials, even lesson plans.

The software to make new books is included in the package.

Gutenberg Edition (http://www.promo.net/pg/)

Essay : The nature of performing arts, and why you begin with the play -
not the methodology.


Essay : Making the case for "The Lost World" in K-12 environments.

Essay : Incorporating and synchronizing Animation to a radio play.

1.  Why this source material ?
2.  Editing the text to create a play.
3.  Producing a temp.au file [first reading].
4.  Inflection - passing beyond mere utility.
4a. words per minute.
4b. volume lever.
4c. breathing [using commas as breath-marks].
4d. the concept of rhythm and pacing.
4e. the inflection curve [volume and pitch change in a sentence].
4f. granularity of the inflection curve.
4g. voicing & characterization.
4h. using silences.
4i. separation of voices - dialog.
4j. emacspeak / viavoice limitations.
4k. Editing "The Lost World" to convert it to a play.
4l. Modernizing European texts from the 19th Century.
4m. Honoring the author's intentions in "The Lost World".
5.  Sound Editing.
5a. Sampling rate.
5b. Resolution.
5c. Band Width.
5d. Mono, Stereo and Dolby 5.1.
5e. "Fast" Transform [FFT] filtering, band filters of various types.
5f. Amplification, Bass Boost and Reverb.
5g. .au, .wav and .mp3 formats.
5h. Broadcasting radio books.
5i. Producing CD and DVD products.
5j. Producing graphics and art for a CD/DVD.
6.  Copyright - using Gutenberg to keep it free for all of us. 
7.  The Right Attitude.
8.  What's on this construct-a-book CD-ROM.
9.  Title and indexing data in a "lame" .mp3.
10. Final Thoughts.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Essay : The nature of performing arts, and why you begin with the play -
not the methodology.

Many computer system designers construct applications by following a universal 
methodology.
A good example of this is "Method 1" used in the 1980s (and perhaps still) by 
Arthur Andersen.
The idea behind these methodologies is that application knowledge can be 
"divined" by method 
based research and analysis.

Pick any method of this ilk, they are all the same in the end.

The older, "Scientific Method" proceeds based on initial interest in some 
experience.
The results of these sorts of explorations result in the researcher becoming a 
subject
matter expert, so the researcher can draw a conclusion based on her/his 
studies, rather
than being forced to select from results that fit the methodology format and 
procedures.

That's what we want in K-12, students forming interest on selected materials, 
conducting
study and research that flows from compelling interests in the subject 
material, leading to
a mental model of the world that material encompasses.  To hit a home run, a 
student 
postulates, and makes a case for, some new insight(s) and proves his case by 
referring to 
collected data, and, in some cases, experimental data and collection of first 
hand accounts.

What does that have to do with the software you use?  Simple.  If you design 
software according
to a methodology, then you primary thesis is always to demonstrate compliance 
to that methodology.
If, instead, you develop curiosity about the data, your software will tend to 
illuminate those 
curiosities, and your primary thesis will be a result of your contact with the 
source material.

This distinction is one of the primary motivations for teaching science and 
mathematics in K-12.
Those skills come together in Social Studies, History and Geography classes.  
The student's
imagination, which is the source of all capacity to form and express ideas, is 
fired to 
integrate these skills by books like "The Lost World".

This approach will place the student in the same frame of mind as Arthur Conan 
Doyle and the 
European Explorers of the late 19th and early 20th century.  They will better 
understand these 
individuals.  Since these dead people have determined the fundamentals of 
today's geopolitical
situation to this day, teaching students to "walk in their shoes" is a good 
thing - it will
make them better citizens.

It will also let their imaginations have full reign in a disciplined context 
that is able to
produce results which provide inside into today's world.

So let those students experience the joy of allowing a methodology develop 
naturally, out of a 
systematic study of all available cultural artifacts on the subject matter.  
That will make them
into independent thinkers, able to possess the courage of a conviction - a 
quality sometimes thrown 
out with the bath water.  



Essay : Making the case for "The Lost World" in K-12 environments.

Flatly put, "The Lost World" has a greater capacity to engage your students
in the sorts of mental skills that is a teacher's charge than the Iliad,
the Odyssey and all of Shakepere's works combined.

Characters in "The Lost World" interact with natives and native ecologies,
and use deductive reasoning that includes Geometry and Geography every student
is mandated to master today.

And, don't forget, the story is exciting.

Inaccurate data about dinosaurs living with man, intelligent Orangutans,
and other "errors" - so what, you can make clear what is fantasy.  After all,
every thing we know about the deep past is mere speculation.  No first person
account exists, and no experiment can be performed to conclusively demonstrate
any world view of the Jurassic period, or any other period that predates man,
excepting astronomical study of far off objects - our one opportunity to see 
the 
past in real-time. And no telescope will ever solve the riddle of the 
dinosaurs.

Relax, this bit of anthropological "mis-information" joins an ocean of baloney
served up from TV and Movies to your students on a daily basis.  At least, in
"Lost World" for the classroom - you can apply the appropriate warning labels.

I know you love Shakespeare, and this shouldn't displace him.  But approached
in the right frame of mind, "Lost World" will engage a multi-cultural student
bodies in ways Shakespeare, and Homer, for that matter, are incapable of 
approaching.



Essay : Incorporating and synchronizing Animation to a radio play.

This is a teaser for an upcoming feature of Construct-a-books.
If it stimulates your interest, e-mail me at meschman@engima.com,
and I'll fill you in on the details :-)

1.  Why this source material ?

It is more likely to engage student interest and is more adaptive to 
cross-disciplinary study, than many materials in wide use today.

It is open to the public domain, freeing funds for supplemental materials,
or other worth study areas that lie fallow because of a lack of funding.

It provides the opportunity to develop editorial skills that classical
materials lack.

2.  Editing the text to create a play.

In order to produce a play, the student must first rewrite.  After
a draft is accepted for further development, voice characterization 
and staging must be developed.  The audio book with computer voices
is like the story boards used in the initial development of a movie.
From these performances, live works for radio broadcast can be developed.

This is how the materials your students accept as valid without question
are developed, in principle at least.  All TV and Movie materials are 
developed 
this way.  It will put your classroom interactions on a more equal footing
with the student's world.

3.  Producing a temp.au file [first reading].

./cmdlinespeakfile will create first draft readings of your audio books.

4.  Inflection - passing beyond mere utility.

The elements of inflection available to the playright producing a
radio play with computer voices include volume of the speaker,
basic voice of the character (phoneme bias), where you take breaths
(i.e. rhythm and pacing), use of silence (really part of rhythm and pacing),
distinction of voices from each other in dialog, pitch and nothing else.

We are developing new code to control the inflection curve, that is the
characteristic pattern by which a speaker allows volume and pitch to rise, 
then fall,
within a reading.


4a. words per minute.

this is the `vs command, and is in words per minute.

4b. volume lever.

`vv command.  This is a log scale with values from 1 to 100.
We have chosen 62 as an arbitrary nominal volume level, by experimentation.

4c. breathing [using commas as breath-marks].

Two means are available to make the computer voice take a breath,
the `p command - `p1500 gives about 2/3 of a second pause, and the comma,
which approximates the duration of a human reader's breath taking.

4d. the concept of rhythm and pacing.

This is a superset of meter.  The words per minute, breath marks and `p pauses
establish the rhythmic character of the reading.

4e. the inflection curve [volume and pitch change in a sentence].

"Droning" of computer voices occurs because pitch and volume do not rise and 
fall
in a natural way.  We at etc ... are in the process of finding a solution for 
this. 
Hopefully, we can do it together :-)

4f. granularity of the inflection curve.

We have achieved "coarse" granularity, that is control of the inflection curve 
at
the chapter and paragraph level.  "Fine grain" inflection curves will extend 
control
into the sentence, and possibly phrase,  level.

4g. voicing & characterization.

Similar characters should derive their audio personalities from the same 
baseline voice.
[determined by experimentation on about 150 literary works from the Gutenberg 
collection.

Base line frequency (pitch) of a character's voice is the primary 
differentiator for a 
specific character within a group of similar characters.

For example, Lord Roxton and the Protagonist are similar characters (`v1).  
Roxton's voice is higher 
pitched than Malone's, because Malone has more weight in the story [since it 
is his diary,
over which he has absolute editorial sway].  Summerlee and Challenger are in a 
group (`v5) as well.
 
4h. using silences.

Transitions in a reading, between scenes, between titles and the body of a 
chapter,
on the revelation of a new plot line element, all of these need pauses to 
allow the audience
to absorb and accept changes in the "field of play".

4i. separation of voices - dialog.

When two characters in a similar group engage in a dialog, their is a danger 
that they will lose
distinctiveness because they derive from the same baseline voice group, or 
interfere with the
audience's "voluntary suspension of disbelief" because two wide a pitch 
variation was used, resulting 
in an "inappropriate" voicing.

We deal with this by modifying a character's profile when engaged in dialog 
with another character
in the same group, for example, dialog between Professors Challenger and 
Summerlee in "The Lost World".
That is, `vv (volume) and `vs (words per minute) are moved one click up, and 
down respectively.
For example Summerlee +1 on vv and -1 on vs and Challenger -1 on `vv and +1 on 
`vs.

The determination of what goes up/down for each character is completely 
subjective, and must be heard to 
determine success or failure, at least in the matter of character 
discrimination within a dialog between
two "related" audio subjects in a radio reading of an adapted literary work.

4j. emacspeak / viavoice limitations.

`v1, v5 are the most flexible in terms of pitch and word rate.
`v4 has limited usefulness in the lower pitch ranges (bass, low tenor).
`v4 gets extremely nasal and "whiny" at higher pitch levels.
Female voice characterization is weak in general.
 
4k. Editing "The Lost World" to convert it to a play.

If you look in audio/audio-chapter-9, audio/audio-chapter-9-final and 
audio/voices :

audio-chapter-9 is the intermediate result of creating the final input
for ./cmdlinespeakfile batch procedure, which outputs audio into temp.au.

In audio-chapter-9, the first character of each line is blank, or contains a 
character name.
The character name is terminated by ' : '. If ch. position 1 is non-blank, and 
' : '
does not occur by ch. position 60, then the line is a text line, as is any 
line blank in
ch. position 1.  

Voices contains the base line viavoice/emacspeak characterization command 
string for 
each character in the play.

audio-chapter-9-final is ./cmdlinespeakfile input, created by using voices 
file to replace
character names in audio-chapter-9.  This process was repeated for each 
chapter of "The Lost World",
but was retained, by way of example, for chapter 9 only.

4l. Modernizing European texts from the 19th Century.

Many 19th century European literary works contain cultural judgments
that are insulting and outrageous to other cultures, which are found today in
your classroom.  "The Lost World" is no exception.

Is any of that material fundamental to plot line ? Absolutely not.

Would Artur Conan Doyle mind it's removal ?

Don't think so.  That "fluff" is in their because contemporary readers
wanted it in their, not as a means to instruct readers.  If he could
[the dead don't edit], he would change it to maintain or increase audience 
size.
Well, we still breath, and, so, we are going to help this author out.

All cultural friction points in "The Lost World" that I identified have been
"buffed out" and I have passed on to you the means to continue that work.

What about artistic integrity ?  The plot line structures remain unaltered.
That is all "The Lost World" requires.

One other point, at the time "The Lost World" was written, serialized stories
ran in newspapers and were consumed by people who were basically manual 
laborers.
To accommodate these readers, every action was forshadowed, as in :

"In this next section, I'm going to get hurt really bad, and will experience 
some 
confusion" followed by the action.

That seems redundant to readers raised on television, so it's gone in the 
radio play.
In fact, all foreshadowing was completely removed, the entire book was 
listened to,
and then foreshadowing was restored where it enhanced the tension, drama and 
forward
movement of the play.  Having students do this would be beneficial in a number 
of ways,
not the least of which is in developing the editorial senses that are a 
prerequisite to 
a successful trade school, college and/or work experience. 

4m. Honoring the author's intentions in "The Lost World".

Plot lines are immutable.  It's as simple as that.

5.  Sound Editing.

We have elected to employ a three stage sound effect philosophy :

a - Introductory music to call the class to attention for a reading.
b - music or sound effects to draw the student's attention to primary shifts 
in the storyline.
c - Epilogue music to call the teacher's attention to the end of a reading, 
for whatever reason.
For example, a teacher may elect to use in-class readings to increase 
available planning time 
for classes.  Epilogue music acts like a "bell" to pull you back for Q & A 
with your students.

5a. Sampling rate.

Our .mp3 audio is mono, bandwidth limited at ~8Khz, 22khz/32Khz sampled.
This is comparable to a good quality mono FM broadcast.  Relative to
CD resolution stereo, it will support 3 to 9 times the concurrent users 
of a broadcast for a given line capacity.  It also reduces number of CDs 
in a collection and FTP download times.

None of the music or story is lost, but dollars are conserved.

5b. Resolution.

Mono : 22050 Hz @ 32 khz (analogous to Mono FM broadcast).

5c. Band Width.

60 Hz. to 8khz., 24 db rolloff at frequency extremes 
(butterworth filters - default lame/audacity).

5d. Mono, Stereo and Dolby 5.1.

Broadcast materials are mono.  For fund-raising materials [CDs and DVDs],
you may elect to run higher quality output to stimulate sales.

These software products, all free and open source, will allow you to
create stereo products at full CD quality, and DVD products that utilize
Dolby 5.1 "surround Sound".

5e. "Fast" Transform [FFT] filtering, band filters of various types.

Some materials you prepare for broadcast may originate on cassette or VHS.
The FFT function in Audacity is effective in removing noise products in the
higher frequencies.  Also, some voicings in viavoice produce high frequency
hash on sibilants.  FFT filtering, in combination with explicit highpass 
filtering in SOX, can remore or diminish these substantially.  

5f. Amplification, Bass Boost and Reverb.

We use -4 db amplification at 60Hz. in Audicity to eliminate any 60 cycle 
hum products.

Bass boost at 200-320Hz. of +3 db in audacity can enhance viavoice's weak 
female voice 
characterizations, and add needed warmth to male tenors.

5g. .au, .wav and .mp3 formats.

./cmdlinespeakfile produces initial readings as temp.au file.
After editing in Audacity an initial .wav file is produced.
All products at this point are 11025Hz. mono @ 32khz.
sox is used to create a 22050/32khz. mono. wav file that is resampled and has 
masking introduced.  Masking increases clarity by raising the noise floor 
above
the noise.
sox is then used to introduce Reverb.  Human voice sounds, and music, have a 
flat or
near flat leading edge and a tapered falling edge.  Viavoice tends to square 
this off.
Reverb restores the taper.  A high frequency no grater than 360Hz. and no 
lesser than 
200Hz., with increments of less than 100Hz., each smaller than the previous 
increment,
seems to produce the best subjective results.  for example :

>'sox in-foo out-foo Reverb 1.0 280 190 140' is good on a male tenor.

after adding Reverb, lame is used to create an .mp3 from the Reverb-ed .wav 
file,
and indexing data is added to the .mp3 as ID3 tag, version 1 information.

here's a complete production sequence as seen at the command line :

rm temp.au [previous output, which otherwise would be appended to temp.au].
./cmdlinespeakfile foo-in.txt
audacity temp.au [you enter Audacity GUI environment]
[in audacity, select file--> export as .wav]
sox temp.wav -c 1 -r 22050 foo2.wav resample mask
sox foo2.wav foo3.wav reverb 1.0 280 190 140
lame -h -m mono --tt 'title of work' foo3.wav final.mp3


5h. Broadcasting radio books.

We use icecast, which supports multiple channels of programming,
by using additional bandwidth. It supports .mpe and ogg-vorbis
equally well.  

software/mp3sched.pl will produce .html and .txt schedules of your programming
from the icecast playlist file.  playlist lists files names in broadcast 
order.
Fully qualified filenames should be used in playlist.  The output from ls can 
be 
used to create a playlist, which can them be modified in kedit or gedit.

5i. Producing CD and DVD products.

CD-Roast / cdrecord can be used to create images.
paranoia can be used to copy images to your hard drive.

5j. Producing graphics and art for a CD/DVD.

We use gimp to create .jpg files for all construct-a-book volumes.
If you can't do it in gimp, it isn't worth doing.

6.  Copyright - using Gutenberg to keep it free for all of us. 

Our basic premise is that predatory pricing of materials by vendors
is depleting funding to the point where the materials cannot be deployed
effectively in the classroom, not enough money left.  Like a Cadillac with
an empty gas tank.

Copright free materials recapture money.  Modernizing these free materials, 
and
otherwise adapting them for classroom use, has educational benefits for both 
students and teachers that surpass any vendor's product line.

Students and teachers have more talent and motivation than vendors.

School districts can't afford vendors and vendors want growing revenues.
These revenues know no upper bound.  School district finances know upper 
bounds,
and, in many cases, the upper bound is shrinking, bu one measure or another.

Students and teachers are producers, not consumers.  Students and teachers
who consume instead of produce have failed.

7.  The Right Attitude.

If you write me at "meschman@engima.com" and say "I haven't read
this stuff yet, but ..." I will make some coffee, cut you a slice of cake or 
pie,
smile, and send you back home without an answer :-) [fair warning].

work at it a little each week...
you will succeed.

8.  What's on this construct-a-book CD-ROM.

new-books/the-lost-world/README [this file]
new-books/the-lost-world/preface-and-contents [Gutenberg header from source 
text]
new-books/the-lost-world/lostw10.txt [complete gutenberg download]
new-books/the-lost-world/imagecopyright-statement.txt [image usage 
constraints]
new-books/the-lost-world/chapter-parser.sh [bash script to create chapter 
files]
new-books/the-lost-world/CHAPTER (N) CHAPTER (M).  foo. [formatted chapter for 
printing]
new-books/the-lost-world/software: [reference http:rpmfind.net]

A note about installing RPMS - (first go buy a notebook).

Installing RPMS begins with constructing sets and sequencing them.

(1) for each provided .rpm, run rpm to determine missing precedents.
rpm will tell you.

(2) determine for each precedent, if it is missing a precedent.

(3) continue until the set contains no missing precedents.

(4) use your notes to determine order of installation.

(5) apply the RPMS in the determined order.

This is one of the most miserable jobs in computing.

Our norm is RedHat 7.3.

timidity-0.2i-7.i386.rpm [used to convert .mid to .mp3 for classical archives 
music]
sox-12.17.3-4.i386.rpm [create and package .wav files]
PHP-Nuke-6.0.tar.gz [if you want BOOKS section, as at http://www.etc-edu.com]
php-4.1.2-7.i386.rpm [web BOOKS support]
php-4.1.2-7.3.4.i386.rpm [updates to base php release]
mysql-3.23.49-3.i386.rpm [database to store books]
lame-3.92-fr5.i386.rpm [create .mp3]
icecast-1.3.0-1.i386.rpm [broadcast software]
gimp-1.2.3-4.i386.rpm [graphics software]
cdrecord-1.10-4.i386.rpm [create CD/VCD(DVD)]
audacity-1.0.0-fr1.i386.rpm [edit audio products, add sound effects]
apache-1.3.23-14.i386.rpm [website server-updates to base release]
apache-1.3.23-11.i386.rpm [website server base release]

new-books/the-lost-world/music: [ reference http://www.classicalarchives.com/]
tchaikovsky-sym.4-1.mp3
schumann-sym3-1.mp3
mlame [script to create multiple .mp3 files in one pass]
mendelssohn-midsummer-overture.mp3
listz-faust-sym-1.mp3
debussy-nocturnes-fetes.mp3

new-books/the-lost-world/images:

Copyright information - all images are believed to be 
public domain, if you know of any image on this site 
isn't allowed by copyright or terms of use,
please notify etc .... 

Anyone who uses image(s) from this site must agree to 
remove any image on our or the creators request if it 
violates copyright or the images terms of use. Even though 
you may use the image on your site the original author still 
has copyright to the image, therefore you may not claim any 
image as your creation.

Images cannot be sold, all images must remain free of charge. 
The page text and design is copyright of etc... 

Use the images at your own risk. etc ... is not responsible 
if you use any copyrighted images and get into legal 
problems. etc ... is not responsible if any copyrighted image 
on this page is used on other pages, it is your responsibility, you 
agree you are aware of the risk, and take full responsibilities.

Copyright ©2002 Engima Technologies Corporation.

All Other Copyrights & Trademarks are the property of their 
respective owners.

inside-cover.jpg
chapter(n).jpg
book-cover-spline.jpg
book-cover-front.jpg
book-cover-back.jpg

new-books/the-lost-world/audio:
voices :

`v1 `vb68 `vf20 `vv62 `vs47 Narrator
`v2 `vb70 `vf45 `vv62 `vs50 Gladys
`v1 `vb69 `vf20 `vv62 `vs46 Protagonist
`v1 `vb67 `vf20 `vv62 `vs40 Mr. Hungerton
`v5 `vb70 `vf20 `vv62 `vs42 McArdle
`v5 `vb67 `vf28 `vv62 `vs52 Tarp Henry
`v5 `vb68 `vf50 `vv62 `vs49 Challenger
`v2 `vb65 `vf30 `vv62 `vs36 Challenger's butler
`v6 `vb71 `vf25 `vv62 `vs45 Challenger's wife
`v4 `vb69 `vf10 `vv70 `vs47 policeman
`v4 `vb71 `vf20 `vv70 `vs52 Dr. Waldron
`v1 `vb71 `vf25 `vv68 `vs51 Lord Roxton
`v5 `vb66 `vf45 `vv62 `vs48 Professor Summerlee 
`v4 `vb69 `vf30 `vv66 `vs36 Gomez
`v1 `vb59 `vf20 `vv72 `vs46 Zambo
`v1 `vb74 `vf50 `vv75 `vs50 Chief's Son

`v(n) is baseline voice group
`vb(n) voice pitch
`vf(n) viavoice inflection scale, gross distortion is easy to achieve with 
high values here.
`vv(n) volume level
`vs(n) words per minute

sound-effects :

this directory contains about 200 free sound effects for use in producing 
radio plays without restriction, but no other use whatsoever.

These include a large number of dinosaur sound effects that were created by
mounting a model of a set of vocal chords in an actual dinosaur skull and 
blowing
compressed air through the voice box !!!

lostworld(n).mp3 broadcast chapters of "The Lost World".
cmdlinespeakfile - will create an audio file names temp.au from any input .txt 
file.
audio-chapter-(n)-final-input [an intermediate text was preserved]
audio-chapter-(n)[if a -final exists for the same (n), this is an intermediate 
product.]

9.  Title and indexing data in a "lame" .mp3.

ID3 tag options: [version 1 only]
    --tt <title>    audio/song title (max 30 chars)-ALWAYS, minimum 
requirement
    --ta <artist>   audio/song artist (max 30 chars)
    --tl <album>    audio/song album (max 30 chars)
    --ty <year>     audio/song year of issue (1 to 9999)
    --tc <comment>  user-defined text (max 30 chars)
    --tn <track>    audio/song track number (1 to 255)
    --tg <genre>    audio/song genre (name)

10. Final Thoughts.

History of Europeans in the Amazon.

http://www.win.tue.nl/~engels/discovery/orellana.html

Spanish adventurer (1511-46) who accomplished the first descent of the River 
Amazon.

Born at Trujillo (various birth dates, ranging from 1490 to 1511, are still 
quoted by 
biographers), Orellana was a close friend, and possibly a relative of the 
Pizarro family. 
He went out to the West Indies (probably in 1527), saw service in Nicaragua, 
then continued 
to Peru with Francisco Pizarro in 1535. During the civil war he sided with the 
Pizarros 
and was Ensign General of a force sent by Francisco Pizarro from Lima in aid 
of Hernando 
Pizarro. He was granted land at Puerto Viejo, on the coast of Ecuador, and had 
founded 
Guayaquil, of which he was governor.

In 1540 Gonzalo Pizarro arrived in Quito as governor and was charged by 
Francisco Pizarro 
with an expedition to locate the "Land of Cinnamon", thought to be somewhere 
to the east. 
In Quito, Gonzalo Pizarro collected a force of 220 Spaniards and 4000 natives, 
while 
Orellana, as second in command, was sent back to Guayaquil to raise a troop of 
horse. 
Pizarro left Quito (in February 1541) just before Orellana arrived with his 23 
men and 
horses. Orellana hurried after the main expedition, eventually making contact 
with them 
in March. However, by the time the expedition had left the mountains, 3000 
natives and 140 
Spanish had either died or deserted.

On reaching the River Coca (a tributary of the Napo), a brigantine, the San 
Pedro, was 
constructed to ferry the sick and supplies. At the confluence with the Napo, 
Orellana 
(with the Dominican Gaspar de Carvajal who chronicled the expedition) and 50 
men set 
off down stream to find food, and arrived at a village on the Napo. Unable to 
return 
against the current, Orellana waited for Pizarro, finally sending back three 
men with a 
message, and started construction of a second brigantine, the Victoria. 
Pizarro had in 
the meantime returned to Quito by a more northerly route, by then with only 80 
men left alive.

After leaving the village on the Napo, Orellana continued downstream to the 
Amazon. In a 
longitude of about 69°W Orellana and his men were involved in a skirmish with 
Machiparo's 
natives and were chased downstream. Continuing downstream they consecutively 
passed the 
Rio de la Trinidad (= Rio Jurua?), the Pueblo Vicioso, the Rio Negro (named by 
Orellana), 
the Pueblo del Corpus, the Pueblo de los Quemados and the Pueblo de la Calle 
in about 57°W. 
There they entered the territory of the Amazons. A skirmish with these warrior 
women 
allegedly occurred on 24 June 1542 while Orellana was approaching the 
Trombetus River, 
in the neighbourhood of the Ilha Tupinambarama at the junction with the River 
Madeira.

In about 54°W they stopped for 18 days ro repair the boats, and finally 
reached the open 
sea on 26 August 1542, and the boats were checked for seaworthiness. While 
coasting towards 
Guiana the brigs were separated until reunited at Nueva Cadiz on Cubagua. The 
Victoria, 
carrying Orellana and Carvajal, passed south around Trinidad and was trapped 
in the Gulf 
of Paria for seven days, finally reaching Cubagua on 11 September 1542. The 
San Pedro 
sailed north of Trinidad and reached Cubagua on 9 September.

From Cubagua Orellana decided to return to Spain. However, after a difficult 
crossing he 
arrived first in Portugal, where the king eagerly offered hospitality and a 
wealthy official 
promised considerable assistance with a return voyage to the Amazon. The 
Treaty of Tordesillas 
had effectively placed the entire length of the Amazon in the Spanish zone, 
while the Portuguese 
regarded the Brazilian coast as their own. However, Orellana continued to 
Valladolid (May 1543) 
in the hope of encouraging Spanish claims to the entire Amazon watershed.

After captivating the Spanish court with tales and exaggerations of his voyage 
down the Amazon, 
Orellana, after nine months deliberation, obtained a commission to conquer the 
regions he had 
discovered. It permitted him to explore and settle Nueva Andalucia, with no 
fewer than 200 
infantrymen, 100 horsemen and the material to construct two river-going ships. 
On his arrival 
at the Amazon he was to build two towns, one just inside the mouth of the 
river. The commission 
was accepted on 18 Feburary 1544, but preparations for the voyage were 
frustrated by unpaid debts, 
Portuguese spies and internal wranglings. Sufficient funds were raised through 
the efforts of Cosmo 
de Chaves, Orellana's stepfather, but the problems were compounded by 
Orellana's decision to marry 
a very young and poor girl, Ana de Ayala, whom he intended to take with him 
(along with her sisters). 
It was only on the arrival of a Portuguese spy fleet at Seville that 
Orellana's creditors relented 
and allowed him to sail. On reaching Sanlucar he was detained again, the 
authorities having discovered 
a shortfall in his complement of men and horses, and the fact that large 
numbers of his crew were not 
Spanish. On 11 May 1545 Orellana (in hiding on one of his vessels) 
surreptitiously sailed out of 
Sanlucar with four ships and disappeared from view.

He sailed first for the Canary Islands, where he wasted three months trying to 
re-supply his ships. 
He then wasted another two months at the Cape Verde Islands, by which time one 
ship had been lost, 
98 men had died of sickness and 50 had deserted. A further ship was lost in 
mid-Atlantic, carrying 
with it 77 crew, 11 horses and a boat to be used on the Amazon. Orellana 
arrived off the Brazilian 
coast shortly before Christmas 1545 and proceeded 100 leagues into the Amazon 
delta.

A river-going vessel was constructed but 57 men died from hunger and the 
remaining sea-going vessel 
was driven ashore. The marooned men found refuge among friendly Indians on an 
island in the delta, 
while Orellana and a boat party set off to find food and locate the principal 
arm of the Amazon. On 
returning to the shipwreck camp they found it deserted, the men having 
constructed a second boat in 
which they had set out to find Orellana. The second boat eventually gave up 
the search and made its 
way along the coast to the island of Margarita. Orellana and his boat crew, 
who had set out again to 
locate the principal channel, were subsequently attacked by Indians. 17 were 
killed by poisoned arrows, 
while Orellana himself died of illness and grief, sometime in November 1546.

The second boat crew, on arriving at Margarita, found 25 of their companions, 
including Ana de Ayala, 
who had arrived there on a ship of the original fleet. The total of 44 
survivors (of an estimated 300) 
were eventually rescued by a Spanish ship. Many of them settled in Central 
America, Peru and Chile, 
while Ana de Ayala befriended another survivor, Juan de Penalosa, with whom 
she lived with for the 
rest of her days in Panama. She is last heard of in 1572.

Map of South America at : http://www.nmnh.si.edu/botany/projects/cpd/samap.htm

Course of the Amazon : http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/world/A0856569.html

Geologically, the Amazon basin is a sediment-filled structural depression 
between crystalline highlands of Brazil and Guiana. The riverbed (1?8 
mi/1.6?12.9 
km wide) is in a wide floodplain that is up to 30 mi (48 km) wide. For much of 
its course, the Amazon wanders in a maze of brownish channels amid countless 
islands, 
but is unobstructed by falls.

Its headstreams, however, arise cold and clear in the heights of the Andes. 
They descend 
northward before turning east to join and form the Amazon (which is, however, 
occasionally 
called the Solimões from the Brazilian border to the junction with the Rio 
Negro). Of the 
Amazon's more than 500 tributaries, the chief ones are the Negro, Japurá 
(Caquetá), 
Putumayo (Içá), and Napo, which enter from the north; and the Javari, Juruá, 
Purús, 
Madeira, Tapajós, and Xingú rivers, which enter from the south. The Casiquiare 
River, 
a natural canal, links the Amazon basin (through the Rio Negro) with the 
Orinoco basin.

Below the Xingú the river reaches its delta, with many islands formed by 
alluvial deposit 
and submergence of the land. Around the largest of these, Marajó, the river 
splits into two 
large streams. The northern stream is the principal outlet and threads its way 
around many 
islands. The southern channel, called the Pará River, receives the Tocantins 
River and has 
the important port of Belém. The awesome tidal bore (up to 12 ft/3.7 m high) 
of the Amazon 
is called pororoca; it travels c.500 mi (800 km) upstream. The river's immense 
silt-laden 
discharge is visible far out to sea.

natives of the Amazon : 
http://geography.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fjajhs.kana.k12.wv.us%2Famazon%2F

all about orangutans : http://www.allaboutmammals.com/subjects/apes/orangutan/




The Lost World, Tarzan, Frankenstein trilogy for history
social sciences and language arts.

A British team lost among natives in the 19th century,
a British Lord raised by apes and a German Citizen (?)
made from bodies in a graveyard.  Bring anyone you know 
to mind? No? Then you're not raised children through the tender 
high school years.

There's enough empathy with your students, in these three books,
to help them work through issue identities, meet your testing
objectives and produce good new citizens, all on the way to teacher 
of the year :-)

Lost World Math & Geography Group.

http://www.amazonian-fish.co.uk/indexgeog.html

The Amazon Basin: Geography

The two great Brazilian cities of the Amazon are Belém at the mouth and Manaus 
upstream at the confluence of the Rio Negro with the river Amazon. Belém is a 
long established town that was given city status in 1655. It is a trading city 
that grew rapidly during the rubber boom years and although rubber is no 
longer 
important it still is a trading centre for Amazonian products such as Brazil 
nuts 
and wood. It is also a centre for Amazonian studies and the Museo (museum) 
Paraense Emílio Goeldi should be visited by all those interested in the 
Amazonian flora and fauna.

Manaus is also a port for ocean-going ships although it is 1,450 km from the 
Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the state of Amazonas and an important 
manufacturing centre. The city has recently undergone a rapid expansion due 
partially to economic assistance from the Brazilian federal government, which 
gave the city valuable tax concessions. From 1890 to 1920, the rubber boom 
brought great wealth to the city and many fine buildings were erected, 
including 
the famous opera house. The city then went into decline until the 1960s when 
the 
present boom commenced. The city has grown rapidly and the once graceful old 
city 
has now been almost destroyed or abandoned. Modern life in the city now 
follows 
the normal suburban pattern of trips to shopping arcades on the outskirts 
rather 
than visits to the old town centre. The rapid growth of this city has drawn 
people 
from the forest and has resulted in a partial de-population of some areas of 
Amazonia 
which in some cases now have populations lower than when the Spaniards first 
arrived. 
Along the edge of the Rio Negro the city has fine sandy beaches during the low 
water 
season. Manaus has a large airport which is the main entry point for Amazonian 
tourists. 
Anyone interested in wildlife should visit INPA which has a small zoo set in a 
small 
forested park.

The third most important Brazilian Amazonian town is Santarém, which is 
situated on the 
right bank of the Tapajós River, near its confluence with the Amazon River. It 
is another 
rapidly growing city but manages to retain more of the traditional feel of an 
Amazonian 
town.

The most important Peruvian city on the Amazon is Iquitos. This port is about 
3,700 km from 
the Atlantic Ocean. The city grew rapidly during the rubber boom but then went 
into rapid 
recline from which it is yet to fully recover, although the population has 
recently 
increased rapidly.

The native peoples of the Amazon have almost all joined the dominant western 
societies. Over 
the last 100 years, there has been great cultural destruction and Amazonian 
Indian numbers 
in many areas have declined dramatically. This was probably due to disease. 
The inter-breeding 
of European settlers, their Negro slaves and local Indians has created a 
hybrid culture. Many 
of the hunting and agricultural skills of the original Indian tribes are still 
retained by 
these people. The staple food is manioc and the main source of protein is 
fish. Fish are caught 
by a wide variety of traditional methods including trapping, harpooning, bow 
and arrow, throw 
netting, line and hook and poisoning. Today the most common methods are gill 
and seine netting. 
Monofilament gill nets are highly effective and have undoubtedly resulted in a 
decline in fish 
stocks in some waters. Commercial fishing activity has recently intensified 
because of demand 
from cities such as Manaus and Belem. This has resulted in a rapid decline in 
the most sought 
after species, particularly pirarucu and tambaqui. The establishment of the 
Mamiraua Ecological 
Reserve is an attempt to address this problem by allowing local subsistence 
fishermen to 
continue to hunt in floodplain lakes while excluding the commercial boats.


Cartography of the Amazon Basin : 
http://www.gvm.sai.jrc.it/Forest/Latin_america/samfin.jpg




Lost World as a second language.

ESL audio books use a lower word rate than normal editions.
This "Lost World" is a normal edition, our first.
All previous audio books from etc ... used ESL friendly
word rates.

High School Broadcasting.

We would like to encourage every school to create and broadcast plays
produced and created by students and teachers, using the Gutenberg collection
at http://www.promo.net/pg/ for copyright free source materials.


High School Media Production & Distribution.

Students and teachers can create and produce CDs and DVDs as fund raisers for 
sports teams, music groups, theatre groups and what have you.

CD-R blanks are less than $.50 and are cheap to mail.

What are you waiting for ?

mike eschman, etc ...
http://www.etc-edu.com
"Not just an afterthought ...