What Technology Wants


Kevin Kelly - 2010
    Arguing that the processes creating the technium are akin to those of biological evolution, Kelly devotes the opening sections of his exposition to that analogy, maintaining that the technium exhibits a similar tendency toward self-organizing complexity. Having defined the technium, Kelly addresses its discontents, as expressed by the Unabomber (although Kelly admits to trepidation in taking seriously the antitechnology screeds of a murderer) and then as lived by the allegedly technophobic Amish. From his observations and discussions with some Amish people, Kelly extracts some precepts of their attitudes toward gadgets, suggesting folk in the secular world can benefit from the Amish approach of treating tools as servants of self and society rather than as out-of-control masters. Exploring ramifications of technology on human welfare and achievement, Kelly arrives at an optimistic outlook that will interest many, coming, as it does, from the former editor of Wired magazine."Gilbert Taylor, Booklist

This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War


Drew Gilpin Faust - 2008
    During the war, approximately 620,000 soldiers lost their lives. An equivalent proportion of today's population would be six million. This Republic of Suffering explores the impact of this enormous death toll from every angle: material, political, intellectual, and spiritual. The eminent historian Drew Gilpin Faust delineates the ways death changed not only individual lives but the life of the nation and its understanding of the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. She describes how survivors mourned and how a deeply religious culture struggled to reconcile the slaughter with its belief in a benevolent God, pondered who should die and under what circumstances, and reconceived its understanding of life after death. Faust details the logistical challenges involved when thousands were left dead, many with their identities unknown, on the fields of places like Bull Run, Shiloh, Antietam, and Gettysburg. She chronicles the efforts to identify, reclaim, preserve, and bury battlefield dead, the resulting rise of undertaking as a profession, the first widespread use of embalming, the gradual emergence of military graves registration procedures, the development of a federal system of national cemeteries for Union dead, and the creation of private cemeteries in the South that contributed to the cult of the Lost Cause. She shows, too, how the war victimized civilians through violence that extended beyond battlefields-from disease, displacement, hardships, shortages, emotional wounds, and conflicts connected to the disintegration of slavery.

The True Adventures of Charley Darwin


Carolyn Meyer - 2009
    And so, at the age of twenty-one, he boarded a ship called HMS Beagle and spent five thrilling but dangerous years sailing around the world, studying plant and animal life that was beyond anything he could have imagined. Here, historical novelist Carolyn Meyer tells the story of his unconventional adventures. It’s the story of a restless childhood, unrequited teenage love, and a passion for studying nature that was so great, Darwin would sacrifice everything to pursue it.

Grandma's Little Black Book of Recipes - From 1910


Les Dale - 2015
    The typed recipes and instructions are a direct translation of the handwriting seen in the photographs on each page. To preserve its authenticity, no extra instructions have been added. The cover is a photograph of the actual book, (with title added.) Bring your tablet into the rural English kitchen of 1910. Relive the tastes and smells of an age where there were no microwave ovens or digital scales. Back then, cooking was done on a Yorkshire Range. The book was compiled before the First World War when young women visited each other's houses swapping recipes, as well as catching up on the latest gossip. Funny little markings on some of the recipes, ( a cross "X" with a dot between each line ) was a star rating, four dots being the best. The recipes included instructions like "place the chocolate and sugar into a bowl and warm by the fire, stirring until melted" ( you will probably pop them into a microwave for a few seconds ) The hand written recipes contain simple ingredients available at that time. Self raising flour was not in common use, baking powder was used with plain flour. UK measurements are used; oz, lbs. and pints. Gills and quarts are given as mL and fluid ozs. Also terms like "bake in a quick oven" are used, a handy guide to all modern settings is given on the "Conversions" page. This is not a book for the complete novice. You won't find any "preheat the oven to 200° " instructions. Their skills were not only in baking, but also maintaining the oven at a constant temperature, remember the heat came from the coal and wood, no thermostatic controls or glass fronted oven in doors existed back then. However, if you can bake scones and know by looking at things when they are "done," you will enjoy experimenting as they did, adapting the recipes to your own taste. Above all……enjoy the taste of yesteryear !!

The Last Man Who Knew Everything: Thomas Young, the Anonymous Polymath Who Proved Newton Wrong, Explained How We See, Cured the Sick, and Deciphered the Rosetta Stone, Among Other Feats of Genius


Andrew Robinson - 2005
    Relates the life of the remarkable man who made major contributions in such fields as physics, languages, and music, describing how he proposed the light-wave theory and the three-color theory of vision, and was instrumental in the deciphering of the Rosetta Stone.

Einstein's War: How Relativity Triumphed Amid the Vicious Nationalism of World War I


Matthew Stanley - 2019
    The neatly printed equations on the scrap of paper outlined his world-changing theory of general relativity, the first complete revision of our conception of the universe since Isaac Newton.Until then, Einstein's masterpiece of time and space had been trapped behind the physical and ideological lines of battle, unknown. Many Britons were rejecting anything German, but Eddington realized the importance of the letter: perhaps Einstein's esoteric theory could not only change the foundations of science but also lead to international co-operation in a time of brutal war.Few recognize how the Great War, the industrialized slaughter that bled Europe from 1914 to 1918, shaped Einstein's life and work. While Einstein never held a rifle, he formulated general relativity blockaded in Berlin, literally starving. His name is now synonymous with 'genius', but it was not an easy road.Einstein spent a decade creating relativity and his ascent to global celebrity owed much to against-the-odds international collaboration, including Eddington's globe-spanning expedition of 1919 - two years before they finally met - to catch a fleeting solar eclipse for a rare opportunity to confirm Einstein's bold prediction that light has weight.We usually think of scientific discovery as a flash of individual inspiration, but here we see it is the result of hard work, gambles and wrong turns. Einstein's War is a celebration of what science can offer when bigotry and nationalism are defeated. Using previously unknown sources and written like a thriller, it shows relativity being built brick-by-brick in front of us, as it happened 100 years ago.

Cripple Creek Days


Mabel Barbee Lee - 1958
    She speaks with authority because she arrived there as a child in 1892, and with wide-eyed wonder saw the whole place turn to gold.With his divining rod, Mabel's father tapped gold ore on Beacon Hill but missed becoming a millionaire by selling his claim short. Nonetheless, life was rich for young Mabel in a booming town with points of interest like Poverty Gulch, the Continental Hotel, and a fantastic house called Finn's Folly; with characters around like the promoter Windy Joe and (seen from a distance) the madam Pearl De Vere; with something always going on, whether a celebration or a disastrous fire or train wreck or a no-nonsense miners' strike.Mabel Lee's book brings back a time and place with affection. The foreword is by Lowell Thomas, who was her pupil when she was a young schoolmarm in Cripple Creek.

Principles of Geology


Charles Lyell - 1830
    Written with clarity and a dazzling intellectual passion, it is both a seminal work of modern geology and a compelling precursor to Darwinism, exploring the evidence for radical changes in climate and geography across the ages and speculating on the progressive development of life. A profound influence on Darwin, Principles of Geology also captured the imagination of contemporaries such as Melville, Emerson, Tennyson and George Eliot, transforming science with its depiction of the powerful forces that shape the natural world.

The Reshaping of Everyday Life 1790-1840


Jack Larkin - 1988
    AcknowledgmentsIntroduction"A busy, bustling, industrious population"Rhythms & limits of life"Comfortable habitations": houses & the domestic environment"The masks which custom had prescribed": intimate life"The whole population is in motion": the experience of travel"The practice of music""Occasions to meet together": the social worldSelected BibliographyIndex

The Quantum Moment: How Planck, Bohr, Einstein, and Heisenberg Taught Us to Love Uncertainty


Robert P. Crease - 2014
    Phrases such as multiverses, quantum leaps, alternate universes, the uncertainty principle, and Schrödinger's cat get reinvented continually in cartoons and movies, coffee mugs and T-shirts, and fiction and philosophy, reinterpreted by each new generation of artists and writers.Is a "quantum leap" big or small? How uncertain is the uncertainty principle? Is this barrage of quantum vocabulary pretentious and wacky, or a fundamental shift in the way we think?All the above, say Robert P. Crease and Alfred Scharff Goldhaber in this pathbreaking book. The authors—one a philosopher, the other a physicist—draw on their training and six years of co-teaching to dramatize the quantum’s rocky path from scientific theory to public understanding. Together, they and their students explored missteps and mistranslations, jokes and gibberish, of public discussion about the quantum. Their book explores the quantum’s manifestations in everything from art and sculpture to the prose of John Updike and David Foster Wallace. The authors reveal the quantum’s implications for knowledge, metaphor, intellectual exchange, and the contemporary world. Understanding and appreciating quantum language and imagery, and recognizing its misuse, is part of what it means to be an educated person today.The result is a celebration of language at the interface of physics and culture, perfect for anyone drawn to the infinite variety of ideas.

The Scientist as Rebel


Freeman Dyson - 2006
    Like artists and poets, they are free spirits who resist the restrictions their cultures impose on them. In their pursuit of Nature’s truths, they are guided as much by imagination as by reason, and their greatest theories have the uniqueness and beauty of great works of art.Dyson argues that the best way to understand science is by understanding those who practice it. He tells stories of scientists at work, ranging from Isaac Newton’s absorption in physics, alchemy, theology, and politics, to Ernest Rutherford’s discovery of the structure of the atom, to Albert Einstein’s stubborn hostility to the idea of black holes. His descriptions of brilliant physicists like Edward Teller and Richard Feynman are enlivened by his own reminiscences of them. He looks with a skeptical eye at fashionable scientific fads and fantasies, and speculates on the future of climate prediction, genetic engineering, the colonization of space, and the possibility that paranormal phenomena may exist yet not be scientifically verifiable.Dyson also looks beyond particular scientific questions to reflect on broader philosophical issues, such as the limits of reductionism, the morality of strategic bombing and nuclear weapons, the preservation of the environment, and the relationship between science and religion. These essays, by a distinguished physicist who is also a lovely writer, offer informed insights into the history of science and fresh perspectives on contentious current debates about science, ethics, and faith.

Խաչագողի հիշատակարանը


Րաֆֆի - 1882
    He was an Armenian from that part of Armenia which was under the Mohammedan rule of the Shah of Persia. In the Diary of a con artist he proposes the civic duties and responsibilities of individuals. He vividly depicts the dark side of the human being but proposes the nurture as opposed to the nature theory. He suggests the society as responsible for creating fertile grounds for individuals' actions. Hence, he proposes the responsibility of the society to its individual in parallel with civic duties of the individuals to the society.

Society's Queen


Anne de Courcy - 1993
    Her husband served in the Ulster cabinet and was Air Minister in the National Government of 1934-5. Edith founded the Women's Legion during the First World War and was also an early campaigner for women's suffrage. She created the renowned Mount Stewart Gardens in County Down that are now owned by the National Trust.All her life, Edith remained at the heart of politics both in Westminster and Ireland. She is perhaps best known for her role as 'society's queen' - a hostess to the rich and famous. Her close circle of friends included Winston Churchill, Lady Astor, Neville Chamberlain and Harold Macmillan who congregated in her salon, known as 'The Ark'. Other members included artists and writers such as John Buchan, Sean O'Casey. Britain's first Labour prime minister, Ramsey MacDonald, became romantically obsessed by her.

Daily Life in Victorian London: An Extraordinary Anthology


Lee Jackson - 2011
    It is not a comprehensive study; but I have revisited an archive of ten years' reading and research — nineteenth century diaries, newspapers, magazines, memoirs, guidebooks — in an attempt to include as many diverse aspects of Victorian life as possible. There is, I must admit, a certain bias in my choice of material: I concentrate on the poor and middle-class. Queen Victoria is glimpsed at a distance, in Hyde Park; MPs and members of the aristocracy appear as the patrons of charities; but this is a book about the everyday. It may seem presumptuous to call this an extraordinary anthology; yet it is the extraordinary details of daily life in the 'Great Metropolis' that continue to fascinate me. My only wish is that the reader may share my enthusiasm.Lee Jackson2011

Love on Her Own Terms


Carol Colyer - 2018
    On her 18th birthday, her parents announce that she has been betrothed to a longtime friend--one she has always known as Uncle Elias. She ponders that fate, but not until she finds out that the betrothal was actually a deal struck in order to save her father's ailing business! As a bold response, she answers a Mail-Order Bride ad for one Dan Gallagher, a ranch owner in Tombstone, Arizona Territory, without knowing what future awaits her...After his late father left it behind, Dan Gallagher struggles to keep the ranch alive, which seems like a difficult feat. His hardships with his brother, and his loneliness lead him to send for a mail order bride, with the expectation to fill his otherwise empty life. He hasn't even seen her, nor has she, which makes it even more difficult for them to meet...Her adventure begins when she leaves Boston, but as it unfolds, she starts to wonder who was the mysterious gentleman she met on the train station. Was it the real Dan Gallagher? Despite the way they meet and all the duplicity around her, who will save whom and, most importantly, will she find love on her own terms?"Love on Her Own Terms" is a historical western romance novel of approximately 80,000 words. No cheating, no cliffhangers, and a guaranteed happily ever after.