Addressing a field that has been dominated by astronomers, physicists, engineers, and computer scientists, the contributors to this collection raise questions that may have been overlooked by physical scientists about the ease of establishing meaningful communication with an extraterrestrial intelligence. These scholars are grappling with some of the enormous challenges that will face humanity if an information-rich signal emanating from another world is detected. By drawing on issues at the core of contemporary archaeology and anthropology, we can be much better prepared for contact with an extraterrestrial civilization, should that day ever come.
Henri Lefebvre has considerable claims to be the greatest living philosopher. His work spans some sixty years and includes original work on a diverse range of subjects, from dialectical materialism to architecture, urbanism and the experience of everyday life. The Production of Space is his major philosophical work and its translation has been long awaited by scholars in many different fields. The book is a search for a reconciliation between mental space (the space of the philosophers) and real space (the physical and social spheres in which we all live). In the course of his exploration, Henri Lefebvre moves from metaphysical and ideological considerations of the meaning of space to its experience in the everyday life of home and city. He seeks, in other words, to bridge the gap between the realms of theory and practice, between the mental and the social, and between philosophy and reality. In doing so, he ranges through art, literature, architecture and economics, and further provides a powerful antidote to the sterile and obfuscatory methods and theories characteristic of much recent continental philosophy. This is a work of great vision and incisiveness. It is also characterized by its author's wit and by anecdote, as well as by a deftness of style which Donald Nicholson-Smith's sensitive translation precisely captures.
First published in 2004.Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680) -- German Jesuit, occultist, polymath - was one of most curious figures in the history of science. He dabbled in all the mysteries of his time: the heavenly bodies, sound amplification, museology, botany, Asian languages, the pyramids of Egypt -- almost anything incompletely understood. Kircher coined the term electromagnetism, printed Sanskrit for the first time in a Western book, and built a famous museum collection. His wild, beautifully illustrated books are sometimes visionary, frequently wrong, and yet compelling documents in the history of ideas. They are being rediscovered in our own time. This volume contains new essays on Kircher and his world by leading historians and historians of science, including Stephen Jay Gould, Ingrid Rowland, Anthony Grafton, Daniel Stoltzenberg, Paula Findlen, and Barbara Stafford.-
This textbook includes all 13 chapters of Français interactif. It accompanies www.laits.utexas.edu/fi, the web-based French program developed and in use at the University of Texas since 2004, and its companion site, Tex's French Grammar (2000) www.laits.utexas.edu/tex/ Français interactif is an open acess site, a free and open multimedia resources, which requires neither password nor fees. Français interactif has been funded and created by Liberal Arts Instructional Technology Services at the University of Texas, and is currently supported by COERLL, the Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning UT-Austin, and the U.S. Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE Grant P116B070251) as an example of the open access initiative.
Before Palm Pilots and iPods, PCs and laptops, the term "computer" referred to the people who did scientific calculations by hand. These workers were neither calculating geniuses nor idiot savants but knowledgeable people who, in other circumstances, might have become scientists in their own right. When Computers Were Human represents the first in-depth account of this little-known, 200-year epoch in the history of science and technology. Beginning with the story of his own grandmother, who was trained as a human computer, David Alan Grier provides a poignant introduction to the wider world of women and men who did the hard computational labor of science. His grandmother's casual remark, "I wish I'd used my calculus," hinted at a career deferred and an education forgotten, a secret life unappreciated; like many highly educated women of her generation, she studied to become a human computer because nothing else would offer her a place in the scientific world. The book begins with the return of Halley's comet in 1758 and the effort of three French astronomers to compute its orbit. It ends four cycles later, with a UNIVAC electronic computer projecting the 1986 orbit. In between, Grier tells us about the surveyors of the French Revolution, describes the calculating machines of Charles Babbage, and guides the reader through the Great Depression to marvel at the giant computing room of the Works Progress Administration. When Computers Were Human is the sad but lyrical story of workers who gladly did the hard labor of research calculation in the hope that they might be part of the scientific community. In the end, they were rewarded by a new electronic machine that took the place and the name of those who were, once, the computers.
He's Just Not in the Stars is a sinful combination of He's Just Not That into You, Sex and the City, and The Secret Language of Birthdays. If all is fair in love and war, this is the right ammunition. . . . Hindsight is 20/20. Love is blind. With all that good and bad vision out there, who's gonna give you some serious insight? Sex columnist and love astrology expert Jenni Kosarin is taking names and kicking astrological butt. . . . Flirt. Crush. Boyfriend. Ex-boyfriend. Husband. Whatever. What's his potential? What's he looking for? How do you fix things once you've messed up? Which sign will give you another chance and which won't? Find out his idiosyncrasies before you date him. Find out who's ready for a relationship and who'll still be hanging out in twentysomething bars in fifteen years. (Uh. Creepy.) Here, get the scoop on how your man stacks up. Decipher. Crack the code. Get stellar advice. The concept is revolutionary: Combine his Sun Sign with his Venus. That's all. No "rising signs," no tricking his mother into telling you what time he was born. No cookie-cutter generalizations. This book is frighteningly specific. Filled with sixty easy-to-follow combos, it's illustrated with ironic, gossip-filled, shocking real-life examples of famous celebs such as: Colin Firth (Virgo, Venus in Libra): Virgo + Libra = sexy and subtle combo Orlando Bloom (Capricorn, Venus in Pisces): Capricorn is all for security, Pisces is a full-on romantic = good guy Chris Rock (Aquarius, Venus in Capricorn): Aquarius can be about partnership when Capricorn grounds it Ethan Hawke (Scorpio, Venus in Scorpio): Ladykiller double sign combo Antonio Banderas (Leo, Venus in Virgo): Hint: the Virgo makes him stay . . . plus many, many others. By defining him in a way that's never been done before, He's Just Not in the Stars gives it to you straight. No tiptoeing around. No hugging and sharing. No coddling. Deal with it. (Cue drum roll.) This is for the woman who wants to take charge of her own destiny. Is he in the stars? Time won't tell. Jenni Kosarin will. He's Just Not in the Stars is the last hip, irreverent relationship book you'll ever want. Throw away the rest . . . They're taking up space where your happily married pictures should go.
The funeral of Mr. Wang -- Of transitions and transformations -- Of space and place : Separation and distinction in the homes of the dead -- Of strangers and kin : moral family and ghastly strangers in urban sociality -- Of gifts and commodities : Spending on the dead while providing for the living -- Of rules and regulations : governing mourning -- Of souls and spirits : secularization and its limits -- Of dreams and memories : a ghost story from a land where haunting is banned -- Epilogue.
