The California Kids Who Saved Cosmic Civilization
The California Kids Who Saved Cosmic Civilization

Author: Samuel O. Spooner

Publisher: Lulu.com

Published: 2017-07-17

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 1483472027

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

As darkness falls over northern California, twelve-year-old science-nerd Jacky Spacer and his ten-year-old brother Chris watch a huge fireball flash to earth out beyond their father's apple orchard. Despite Dad's dire warning to stay at home, Jacky feels certain that someone or something is calling out to him from the crash site. This is the extraordinary story of the earth-shaking events that unfold after the boys sneak out to explore the site in the dead of night. Their mind-boggling discovery not only turns them into fugitives from a nosy local lawman, it also turns their world upside down. Eventually, it even reveals an explosive secret about the earth's future so big that the kids must help save the planet.

Culture and Environment
Culture and Environment

Author:

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2019-07-01

Total Pages: 459

ISBN-13: 9004396683

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The inspiration for this book arose out of a large international conference: the ninth World Environmental Education Congress (WEEC) organized under the theme of Culture/Environment. Similarly, the theme for this book focuses on the Culture/Environment nexus. The book is divided into two parts: Part 1 consists of a series of research studies from an eclectic selection of researchers from all corners of the globe. Part 2 consists of a series of case studies of practice selected from a wide diversity of K-Postsecondary educators. The intent behind these selections is to augment and highlight the diversity of both cultural method and cultural voice in our descriptions of environmental education practice. The chapters focus on a multi-disciplinary view of Environmental Education with a developing view that Culture and Environment may be inseparable and arise from and within each other. Cultural change is also a necessary condition, and a requirement, to rebuild and reinvent our relationship with nature and to live more sustainably. The chapters address the spirit of supporting our praxis, and are therefore directed towards both an educator and researcher audience. Each chapter describes original research or curriculum development work.

Starry Messenger
Starry Messenger

Author: Neil deGrasse Tyson

Publisher: Henry Holt and Company

Published: 2022-09-20

Total Pages: 145

ISBN-13: 1250861497

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Bringing his cosmic perspective to civilization on Earth, Neil deGrasse Tyson shines new light on the crucial fault lines of our time—war, politics, religion, truth, beauty, gender, and race—in a way that stimulates a deeper sense of unity for us all. In a time when our political and cultural views feel more polarized than ever, Tyson provides a much-needed antidote to so much of what divides us, while making a passionate case for the twin chariots of enlightenment—a cosmic perspective and the rationality of science. After thinking deeply about how science sees the world and about Earth as a planet, the human brain has the capacity to reset and recalibrates life’s priorities, shaping the actions we might take in response. No outlook on culture, society, or civilization remains untouched. With crystalline prose, Starry Messenger walks us through the scientific palette that sees and paints the world differently. From insights on resolving global conflict to reminders of how precious it is to be alive, Tyson reveals, with warmth and eloquence, an array of brilliant and beautiful truths that apply to us all, informed and enlightened by knowledge of our place in the universe.

Tradition and Creativity
Tradition and Creativity

Author: Ching-i Tu

Publisher: Transaction Publishers

Published: 1987

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13: 9781412840255

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The terms "culture" and "civilization" have too often been used interchangeably in referring to accomplishments in the spiritual, intellectual, and material domains, and human progress from the uncultivated to the refined. But in reality, they have a twofold meaning, as the essays in this book attest. The eight prominent scholars in this volume, working in their respective areas of expertise, offer either new perspectives or new syntheses on the study of the subjects under discussion. In discussing various aspects of Chinese and Japanese cultures, these essays either offer new perspectives or new syntheses on the study of the topics under discussion. In addition, they share a common effort to underscore the importance of the humanistic tradition in East Asian civilization. Authored by leading scholars in the field, they represent the current scholarship in the West on the study of Chinese and Japanese cultures, and contribute significantly to a better understanding of East Asia. Contents: Preface: Ching-I Tu; Popular Religions in Japan: Faith, Belief, and Behavior, Robert J. Smith; Virtuous Wives and Good Mothers-Women in Chinese Society, Marilyn B. Young; Popular Culture in China, Evelyn S. Rawski; Japanese Culture and Foreign Affairs, Akira Iriye; Chinese Culture: High Integration and Hard Modernization, James T.C. Liu; Modern Art Criticism and Chinese Painting History, Wen C. Fong; Religion and Literature in China: The "Obscure Way" of The Journey to the West, Anthony C. Yu; Management and Labor in the Japanese Economy, Solomon B. Levine

Children's Literature, Domestication, and Social Foundation
Children's Literature, Domestication, and Social Foundation

Author: Layla AbdelRahim

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-12-05

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 1135104603

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This study of children's literature as knowledge, culture, and social foundation bridges the gap between science and literature and examines the interconnectedness of fiction and reality as a two-way road. The book investigates how the civilized narrative orders experience by means of segregation, domestication, breeding, and extermination, arguing instead that the stories and narratives of wilderness project chaos and infinite possibilities for experiencing the world through a diverse community of life. AbdelRahim engages these narratives in a dialogue with each other and traces their expression in the various disciplines and books written for both children and adults, analyzing the manifestation of fictional narratives in real life. This is both an inter- and multi-disciplinary endeavor that is reflected in the combination of research methods drawn from anthropology and literary studies as well as in the tracing of the narratives of order and chaos, or civilization and wilderness, in children's literature and our world. Chapters compare and contrast fictional children's books that offer different real-world socio-economic paradigms, such as A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh projecting a civilized monarcho-capitalist world, Nikolai Nosov's trilogy on The Adventures of Dunno and Friends presenting the challenges and feats of an anarcho-socialist society in evolution from primitivism towards technology, and Tove Jansson's Moominbooks depicting the harmony of anarchy, chaos, and wildness. AbdelRahim examines the construction, transmission, and acquisition of knowledge in children’s literature by visiting the very nature of literature, culture, and language and the civilized structures that domesticate the world. She brings radically new perspectives to the knowledge, culture, and construction of human beings, making an invaluable contribution to a wide range of disciplines and for those engaged in revolutionizing contemporary debates on the nature of knowledge, human identity, and the world.

Lost in the Cosmos
Lost in the Cosmos

Author: Walker Percy

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2000-04

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 9780312253998

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Explores human nature and presents insights on the self and its fears, sexuality, boredom, depression, and other aspects.

The Message in the Bottle and Lost in the Cosmos
The Message in the Bottle and Lost in the Cosmos

Author: Walker Percy

Publisher: Open Road Media

Published: 2018-05-22

Total Pages: 464

ISBN-13: 1504054016

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Two fascinating philosophical inquiries from the “dazzlingly gifted” New York Times–bestselling and National Book Award–winning author of The Moviegoer (USA Today). Winner of the National Book Award for The Moviegoer, the Southern writer Walker Percy possessed “an intellectual range and rigor few American novelists can match” (The New York Times Book Review). In these two provocative works, Percy manages to be perceptive and playful as he more directly explores the philosophical foundations of his groundbreaking fiction. The Message in the Bottle: In these profound and passionate essays that “have a way of quickening the spirit and cleansing the sight,” Percy looks to language to answer the question of who we are as humans (The New Republic). He posits that the act of assigning meaning by naming things makes humans unique. Percy develops a theory of language through the example of Helen Keller being stimulated by the feel of water along with the sign for water, and explores questions such as why other animals don’t talk and why humans in technologically advanced, materially comfortable societies are so sad. “A delight . . . a pleasure to read.” —Larry McMurtry, The Washington Post Book World Lost in the Cosmos: “Charming, whimsical, slyly profound,” Lost in the Cosmos is a one-of-a-kind mix of self-help parody and philosophical speculation (The New York Times). Filled with quizzes, essays, short stories, and diagrams, Percy’s guide is a laugh-out-loud spin on a familiar genre that also pushes readers to serious contemplation of life’s biggest questions, such as: “Why is it no other species but man gets bored?” and “Explain why Moses was tongue-tied and stagestruck before his fellow Jews but had no trouble talking to God.” “A mock self-help book designed not to help but to provoke; a chapbook to inveigle us into thinking about who we are and how we got into this mess.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review