BobHarris.com - More red-hot giant manta ray action

Books! Actual books!

"A rollicking ride of intellectual discovery and emotional growth... his comic timing never fails"

-- The Wall Street Journal

"Pulls you in like a good sports story"

-- The New York Times Book Review

"Endearingly frank... jubilant... lighthearted and fast-paced"

-- New York Newsday

"A surprisingly touching memoir"

-- Entertainment Weekly

"Snappy and informative"

-- Associated Press

"Effortlessly funny and informative... tender, human, and very wise... A must for anyone who loves Jeopardy!, or has ever seen it, or is breathing."

-- Joss Whedon, creator, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

"I haven't seen Jeopardy! since I was a kid, and yet I was charmed and amused by Bob Harris's fascinating and surprisingly suspenseful book. Through sheer force of personality, he takes this brainy TV show and makes it funny and easy to relate to."

-- Ira Glass, creator and host, This American Life

"A surprisingly intimate, entertaining book."

-- Orson Scott Card, 4-time Hugo Award winner, author of Ender's Game

"Funny, enlightening -- and just might help you win a million bucks on Jeopardy!"

-- A. J. Jacobs, author of The Know-It-All

"A masterful job of describing the feel of Jeopardy! in the heat of battle... I knew Bob was a great guy and a fantastic Jeopardy! player. Now I've found that he's also a wonderful writer. I think I'm starting to hate him."

-- Brad Rutter, top money-winner in Jeopardy! history

Books I'm Getting

Who Hates Whom:
Well-Armed Fanatics, Intractable Conflicts,
and Various Things Blowing Up —
A Woefully Incomplete Guide™

“Revelatory... Harris's sly wit and infectious curiosity make understanding world chaos fascinating... witty, horrific, and necessary.”

— Boston Globe

"Brave... irreverent... charges into the thick of the globe's myriad simmering wars... hilariously relaxed."

— New York Observer

"Only Bob could make a user’s guide to our increasingly hostile world this absorbing, this breezy, and—ultimately—this hopeful.”

— Ken Jennings, author of Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs

“Fascinating, enlightening, and surprisingly: NOT TOTALLY DEPRESSING. A gimlet-eyed look at the world we endure that’s also suitable for enjoying with a gimlet.”

— John Hodgman, author of The Areas of My Expertise
and correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

"All three [presidential] candidates should read all three of these [recommended] books, but McCain gets first crack at Bob Harris's "Who Hates Whom“... a lighthearted overview of the insurrections and civil wars in the world today."

— Steven Pinker, author of The Stuff of Thought, in the New York Times Book Review

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More red-hot giant manta ray action

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Wednesday, 22 February 2006

I've gotten a surprising amount of mail on this. Neat. Days later, I'm still thinking about these giant yet gentle and nearly-defenseless beasts.

I should say, rather, that they're defenseless as far as I can tell. No sign of fangs or claws or exoskeleton or stinging tail. No spitting of poison, no toxic breath, no electic zappy ability. In fact, merely touching them will cause injury. (This is another way in which swimming with mantas resembles a lap dance: eyes good, hands bad.) But then, mantas can weigh roughly a ton. So maybe if you really tick them off they can gang-squish you or something. But I doubt it.

One letter was from the director of the Manta Pacific Research Foundation, a research and conservation group working to study and protect the giant manta rays. They're also working to make it illegal to intentionally harm or kill manta rays in Hawaiian waters, and they've even got a petition you can sign if you want to help them show the government there's real public support for getting mantas some protection. I'd like to thank her and her group right here for her letter and their good work, which I encourage you to support.

Their site also has a little write-up of how mantas wound up hanging out in Kona, and even a set of thumbnails of the 100 or so male and female mantas who have so far been identified as enjoying the local chow. There were two mantas in the water when I went; one of them spent most of its time near the surface and gave me the full-body loop easily more than a dozen times. I'm pretty sure I recognize Weniki as the manta I spent large chunks of an hour with.

Meanwhile, these are the folks I went to sea with. There are other companies which do similar stuff, but I can't imagine it could be easier, friendlier, or more convenient. The link also leads to a short Quicktime movie which gives you some sense of what being in the water with mantas is like.