Jon Krakauer Brookline Massachusetts, 12 april 1954 is een Amerikaans alpinist, journalist en auteur van nonfictie, met name over het buitenleven en alpinisme. AUTHORS NOTE In April 1992, a young man from a welltodo East Coast family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. The latest book from Jon Krakauer, author of Into Thin Air and Into The Wild, focuses on the life and tragic death of former NFL player Pat Tillman, who. Krakauer Explores Pat Tillmans Death And Cover Up NPR. Former NFL player Pat Tillman left the Arizona Cardinals to join the U. S. Army Rangers. He was killed in Afghanistan in 2. Charles GabreanCourtesy of Doubleday. Charles GabreanCourtesy of Doubleday. Former NFL player Pat Tillman left the Arizona Cardinals to join the U. S. Army Rangers. He was killed in Afghanistan in 2. Charles GabreanCourtesy of Doubleday. The latest book from Jon Krakauer, author of Into Thin Air and Into The Wild, focuses on the life and tragic death of former NFL player Pat Tillman, who left a lucrative contract with the Arizona Cardinals to join the U. S. Army Rangers. Krakauer talks to NPRs Melissa Block about his investigation into Tillmans death by friendly fire and the Armys subsequent effort to cover up the circumstances of that death. Into Thin Air Pdf Jon Krakauer' title='Into Thin Air Pdf Jon Krakauer' />A Spray Of Bullets. At least half the members of a platoon traveling through Afghanistan on April 2. But on this day, the enemy attacked. In response, the American soldiers sprayed thousands of rounds from their machine guns, M4s and grenade launchers. Not far away was Tillman, accompanied by another American soldier and an Afghan militia fighter, who had been firing his weapon at the opposite canyon wall, where he suspected enemy fighters could be. When, from a distance, the leader of one of the U. PdpdX3Gc9e_1445658181625.jpg' alt='Into Thin Air Pdf Jon Krakauer' title='Into Thin Air Pdf Jon Krakauer' />S. Humvees saw the Afghan militia fighter, he reacted. He testified that the Afghan guy had on an American uniform, but in the panic of the moment, he reflexively put the guy in the sights of his M4 and put seven rounds into his chest, Krakauer says. The shots by the leader of Humvee were followed by a spray of bullets from the rest of his men. It was an attack that ended in Tillmans death. An Army Cover Up. What happened next was an effort by the government to suppress the circumstances of Tillmans death. Into Thin Air Pdf Jon Krakauer' title='Into Thin Air Pdf Jon Krakauer' />Into Thin Air Death on Everest is a 1997 American disaster television film based on Jon Krakauers memoir Into Thin Air 1997. The film, directed by Robert. Mazdas hotly anticipated SKYACTIVX Spark Controlled Compression Ignition engine has been described as the Holy Grail of gasoline motorssomething with. Jon Krakauer Brookline, 12 aprile 1954 un saggista e alpinista statunitense, conosciuto per i suoi libri riguardanti la vita allaria aperta e lalpinismo. Within hours, certainly, and probably less, the Ranger regiment officers, high ranking officers back in the States were conspiring to cover this up, Krakauer says. A recommendation to award Tillman with a Silver Star medal, one of the U. S. militarys highest honors, immediately began moving through the Army ranks something that is not done for deaths by friendly fire, Krakauer says. And, says Krakauer, when a soldier is killed in combat, you should put his uniform, his weapon, everything anything that can be considered forensic evidence should be sent back to the States with the body, so the medical examiners could determine the cause of death. In the case of Tillman, none of that happened. Tillmans uniform and body armor were burned, says Krakauer, and his weapon, helmet, even a part of his brain, which fell to the ground after the attack, disappeared. Army officials told the medical examiners that Tillman had been killed by the Taliban and they stuck by this story when they reported the death to his family. The Army intentionally lied, Krakauer says. They just broke regulation after regulation. One soldier, Russell Baer, was sent back to the United States with instructions not to reveal to the Tillman family that their son had been killed by friendly fire. After attending the funeral, Krakauer says, He was so upset at having to lie to Pats mother that Russell Baer went AWOL. Jon Krakauer left on patrol with Afghan Special Forces in June 2. SFC Jared MontiCourtesy of Doubleday. SFC Jared MontiCourtesy of Doubleday. Jon Krakauer left on patrol with Afghan Special Forces in June 2. SFC Jared MontiCourtesy of Doubleday. New Details. Though the death of Pat Tillman, and the subsequent congressional inquiry into it, has been covered closely by the news media, Krakauer says there are many details that have yet to be exposed. The author uncovers several new aspects of the story by combing through the more than 4,0. Tillmans death, and conversations with his fellow soldiers. Krakauer points out that Gen. Stanley Mc. Chrystal, now the U. S. commander in Afghanistan, signed off on the Silver Star recommendation, even though he knew that Tillmans death was a result of friendly fire. In confirmation hearings earlier this year, Mc. Chrystal acknowledged that the Army had failed the Tillman family, and he apologized for his part in that. But he maintained that he didnt see any activities by anyone to deceive, and that he absolutely believed that Tillman earned the Silver Star. September 1. 4, 2. PM ETPrologue. Ever since Homo sapiens first coalesced into tribes, war has been part of the human condition. Inevitably, warring societies portray their campaigns as virtuous struggles, and present their fallen warriors as heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice for a noble cause. But death by so called friendly fire, which is an inescapable aspect of armed conflict in the modern era, doesnt conform to this mythic narrative. It strips away wars heroic veneer to reveal what lies beneath. Its an unsettling reminder that barbarism, senseless violence, and random death are commonplace even in the most just and honorable of wars. Consequently, and unsurprisingly, when soldiers accidentally kill one of their own, there is tremendous reluctance to confront the truth within the ranks of the military. There is an overwhelming inclination to keep the unsavory particulars hidden from public view, to pretend the calamity never occurred. Thus it has always been, and probably always will be. As Aeschylus, the exalted Greek tragedian, noted in the fifth century b. In war, truth is the first casualty. Where Men Win Glory The Odyssey of Pat Tillman. By Jon Krakauer. Hardcover, 4. Doubleday. List Price 2. When Pat Tillman was killed in Afghanistan, his Ranger regiment responded with a chorus of prevarication and disavowal. A cynical cover up sanctioned at the highest levels of government, followed by a series of inept official investigations, cast a cloud of bewilderment and shame over the tragedy, compounding the heartbreak of Tillmans death. Among the several thousand pages of documents generated by military investigators, some baffling testimony emerged from the Ranger who is believed to have fired the bullets that ended Tillmans life. In a sworn statement, this soldier explained that while shooting a ten round burst from his machine gun at the hillside where Tillman and ONeal were positioned, he identified two sets of arms straight up through the scope of his weapon. I saw the arms waving, he acknowledged, but I didnt think they were trying to signal a cease fire. So he pulled the trigger again and sprayed them with another ten round burst. How was one supposed to make sense of this Or this in July 2. Associated Press published an article reporting that the Navy pathologist who performed Tillmans autopsy testified that the forensic evidence indicated Tillman had been shot three times in the head from a distance of thirty five feet or less. The article prompted widespread speculation on the Internet and in the mainstream press that he had been deliberately murdered. Many other details about the fatal firefight that found their way into the public domain were similarly perplexing. Perhaps the greatest mystery, however, surrounded not the circumstances of Tillmans death but the essential facts of his life. Before he enlisted, Tillman was familiar to sports aficionados as an undersized, overachieving football player whose virtuosity in the defensive backfield was spellbinding. Mazdas Holy Grail Of Gasoline Engines Is Completely Fascinating. Mazdas hotly anticipated SKYACTIV X Spark Controlled Compression Ignition engine has been described as the Holy Grail of gasoline motorssomething with diesel like fuel economy, but far better efficiency. I went to Germany to talk to Mazdas extremely nerdy engineers, and before I actually drove the thing, heres what I learned. Full Disclosure Mazda wanted me to drive their SKYACTIV X prototype, so the company flew me to Frankfurt, Germany, put a nice roof over my head, and fed me delicious foods whose names had more umlauts and Scharfes Ss than I could count. Mazda brought executive officers, VPs and managers from its powertrain, vehicle development, and research and development teams to explain to journalists how the SKYACTIV X Spark Controlled Compression Ignition engine works, and why it matters. In addition, Mazda discussed its all new platform, which is where well start before jumping into the exciting SPCCI engine goodness. The New Platform. Despite having driven some prototype next generation Mazda. Frankfurt, I cant really say much about its improvement over the outgoing bones. But the main points executive manager of vehicle development Hiroyuki Matsumoto stressed when talking about the new structure dealt with refinement. Matsumoto said that, in its effort to improve a driving feeling they call Jinba Ittai Connection between horse and rider, the company studied the human gait to establish a platform that optimizes human ability to balance. Part of that involved designing the seat supports to maintain natural S curve of the spinal column by the erection of the drivers pelvis you can see that below. Mazda also designed a new seat structure thats apparently able to quickly and smoothly transmit the energy input from vehicle body to the drivers pelvis. On top of that, Matsumoto told journalists that the body has been stiffened to reduce the transient response time between the input load on one damper, and the response load at the damper in the opposite corner. Mazda does this by using what it calls ring structures shown in the dotted green circles below The engineer also mentioned suspension and tire changes aimed at smoothly controlling energy transfer from the wheel to the body, as well as NVH changes like the 1. Ultimately, Mazdas main points when discussing the new platform seemed to revolve around driver comfort, with emphasis on ride quality, noise, and the way the car communicates inputs to the drivers ass. Unfortunately, I didnt spend enough time in the prototype to really assess how much better this platform is than the last. Well have to wait for a long term test for that. The Benefits Of Compression Ignition. Red Alert 2 Egypt Patch. To understand the whole point behind Mazdas new gasoline compression engine tech, lets look at the seven factors the company works on to increase internal combustion engine efficiency shown on the left of the graphic below. They are compression ratio, specific heat ratio, combustion period, combustion timing, heat transfer to the wall, differential pressure between intake and exhaust, and mechanical friction. Improving these attributes theoretically leads towards the ideal internal combustion engine, and SKYACTIV X takes a number of steps in the right direction. Higher Compression Ratio And Specific Heat Ratio. Mazda mentions in its presentation that combustion engine efficiency is related to compression ratio and the intake charges specific heat ratio via the equation above. In other words, cranking up compression ratio and specific heat ratios yields better efficiency. SKYACTIV G, Mazdas current generation of gasoline engine technology, used a clever exhaust system, a piston cavity, and a high pressure fuel system with multi hole injectors to prevent knocking and to allow for a ridiculously high 1. SKYACTIV X, a compression ignition engine, cranks that figure up to between 1. As for bumping up that specific heat ratio k value, Mazda says running the engine lean and decreasing its combustion temperature takes care of that. We know that k for air is about 1. That means the more air you can put into that air fuel charge, the higher that overall k value, and thus the greater the efficiency. Decreased combustion temperatures are a result of lean burn and indeed, why NOx emissions are so low for this type of engine. The benefit, Mazda shows in the plot above, is that the lower combustion temperatures mean less energy is lost to molecular vibrations and decomposition. Thus, a lower combustion temperature yields a higher k, whichagainmeans better efficiency. Combustion Period And Timing. Aside from the higher compression ratio and specific heat ratio it allows, compression ignition engines tend to burn their lean mixtures thoroughly and rapidly. This means energy from combustion can be more efficiently translated into work done on the piston, whereas spark ignition engines tend to involve a significant time delay associated with flame propagation. Pumping Losses And Heat Loss Through Cylinders. The other two areas where a lean compression engine can yield significant efficiency benefits is in cooling losses and throttling losses. The first is fairly straightforward, as lower combustion temperatures mean less heat transferred to the cylinder walls. The second has to do with the fact that a leaner airfuel mixture means theres more air required for a given torque level. Thisalong with strategic use of EGR, variable valve timing and a supercharger to control airflow into the cylinder means the throttle plate can be held fully open more often than on a standard gasoline engine. So instead of trying to suck air through a restrictive throttle plate, air can flow easily into the cylinders. Mazda says this also has the added benefit of improved throttle response, since theres no longer a delay in trying to fill the intake plenum. Emissions. Mazdas new technology also promises reduced emissions, which is a big deal, since Dieselgate is putting a huge damper on compression engines. With internal combustion engines, oxides of nitrogen tend to rise with a higher air fuel ratio up to a point. Above that point, NOx output drops as you can see from this plot. Since Mazdas new engine usually runs at a lambda fuel air ratio relative to stoichiometric of at least 1. NOx output is rather low, and can therefore forgo expensive emissions equipment. Carbon emissions, too, are reduced with SPCCI due to its higher fuel efficiency. How Mazdas SPCCI System Works, Exactly. A gasoline compression ignition engine isnt exactly a new concept. In fact, if you go back an entire decade, youll see that General Motors even had prototype Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition engines with spark assist ready for journalists to drive around the test track. Why, then, is everyone getting excited about Mazdas gasoline compression engine when weve been hearing about similar technologies for years The answer comes down to how Mazdas controlling combustion. The two main issues that Mazda says have impeded the proliferation of gasoline compression engines are 1. The limited zone in which compression ignition is possible and 2. The rough transition between compression and spark ignition.