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 Old Age in Early Medieval England: A Cultural History (Anglo-Saxon Studies) (Volume 33) by Thijs Porck 2019 | ISBN: 1783273755 | English | 288 pages | True PDF | 6 MB How did Anglo-Saxons reflect on the experience of growing old? Was it really a golden age for the elderly, as has been suggested? This first full survey of the Anglo-Saxon cultural conceptualisation of old age, as manifested and reflected in the texts and artwork of the inhabitants of early medieval England, presents a more nuanced and complicated picture. The author argues that although senescence was associated with the potential for wisdom and pious living, the Anglo-Saxons also anticipated various social, psychological and physical repercussions of growing old. Their attitude towards elderly men and women - whether they were saints, warriors or kings - was equally ambivalent.  Number Darts Mental Maths Puzzles by Clarity Media English | April 15, 2020 | ISBN: N/A | ASIN: B0875XNRQY | 65 pages | PDF | 0.23 Mb Number Darts Mental Maths Puzzles  Nowhere in the Middle Ages (The Middle Ages Series) by Karma Lochrie 2016 | ISBN: 0812248112 | English | 280 pages | True PDF | 13 MB Literary and cultural historians typically cite Thomas More's 1516 Utopia as the source of both a genre and a concept. Karma Lochrie rejects this origin myth of utopianism along with the assumption that people in the Middle Ages were incapable of such thinking. In Nowhere in the Middle Ages, Lochrie reframes the terms of the discussion by revealing how utopian thought was, in fact, "somewhere" in the Middle Ages. In the process, she transforms conventional readings of More's Utopia and challenges the very practice of literary history today.  Julie Adair King, "Nikon D3400 For Dummies" English | ISBN: 1119336244 | 2016 | 352 pages | EPUB | 12 MB Discover the essentials to getting better photos with the Nikon DLSLR D3400  Peter Cope, "Night and Low-Light Techniques for Digital Photography" ISBN: 158428174X | 2005 | True PDF | 130 pages | 5 MB The techniques illustrated in this handbook inspire photographers to take photographs when they would otherwise put their camera away-in low-light and nighttime situations. A comprehensive discussion of color and tone teaches photographers how to change their overall perceptions in low-light environments and adjust their exposure settings and filters to suit a variety of light levels. The most adverse lighting situations are covered, such as floodlit cityscapes, lightning, sunsets, stage shows, and fireworks. Tips on taking advantage of the digital environment's ability to manipulate and enhance low-light images both during and after the photo shoot are offered and technical information on both cameras and the latest software is discussed.  New Religions in Global Perspective: A Study of Religious Change in the Modern World By Peter Clarke 2006 | 373 Pages | ISBN: 0415257484 | PDF | 3 MB "New Religions in Global Perspectives" by Peter B. Clarke (2006) is a good book, especially if you are interested in how humanity's religious sentiment is expressed in different and similar ways across societies and cultures in the modern (and so-called postmodern) world. Clarke's book is less profound than Needleman & Baker's (1981) classic "Understanding the New Religions." It provides, however, a more balanced view of so-called New Age Movements (NAMs) than presented by Lewis & Melton's (1992) edited "Perspectives on the New Age." Clarke thankfully avoids the polemics and loaded language that characterizes such books as Peters' (1991) "The Cosmic Self" and LeBar's (1989) "Cults, Sects, and the New Age," which not infrequently disparage NAMs as alterative faith systems to Christianity that turn man into God, while disingenuously accepting alternative conventionally-held Christian doctrinal tenets that turn God into man and the notion that the Son of God could be contained in one human frame. Drawbacks to the text are its cost, its over-attention to detail, and repetitiveness. The sticker price of the book is a bit of a shock. It costs over $100 "used" as of this writing which I consider over-priced, especially for an Amazon.com book. My recommendation is to have an academic library purchase the book (or obtain a copy through interlibrary loan) and then borrow it as a patron to read. The first two chapters that provide defining characteristics of NRMs and NAMs are the best chapters of the book. Subsequent chapters outline NRMs as they appear in Europe, North and South America, the Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. These characteristics are presented in such excruciating detail that the global forest becomes lost in the local trees. The repetitiveness occurs as the author tries to make connections among the diverse geographical regions -- connections that are repeated within each chapter -- to establish the book's "global perspective" and to point out similarities across the multiple and diverse forms that spirituality and religion take in the human species. Positively, this is a scholarly work with references and a selected bibliography at the end of each chapter. These bibliographies are helpful aids for the student of cross-cultural psychology who is interested in pursuing the innovative character of new religious movements in more depth. One evocative idea that comes out of Clarke's work is the notion of "glocalization" -- the process of shaping the local religion and being shaped by it. It draws readers' attention to the emergence of "a new class (of seekers) that neither belongs nor believes. . . Even where affiliation to one faith only is still considered important, doctrinal tenets are increasingly seen as matters of personal opinion. . . .The possibility of multiple belonging becomes much more likely as religions come to reshape each other" (pp. 4-5). In other words, the various NRM and NAMs are shaping rather than displacing the form and content of traditional world religions, and giving rise to spirituality over religion and personal praxis over doctrinal tenets. Clarke's global perspective is appreciated at a time when much conventional research into the psychology of religion and spirituality is covertly ethnocentric. It complements the cross-cultural approach that academic fields such as transpersonal studies take in their study of the religious change that we as a species are experiencing today. For these reasons, this reader has found Clarke's book to be a welcomed addition to the scholarly literature of religious and spiritual change in the modern world.  Nanotechnology in Membrane Processes by Kailash Chandra Khulbe English | 2021 | ISBN: 3030641821 | 364 Pages | PDF | 12 MB  Nanomaterials by Severe Plastic Deformation by Michael J. Zehetbauer and Ruslan Z. Valiev English | ISBN: 3527306595 | 2004 | PDF | 875 pages | 25,4 mb Nanotechnology has spawned the creation of many novel fabrication processes enroute to a nanomaterial, nanophase, or nanomachine. Severe plastic deformation (Equal Channel Angular Pressing - ECAP, High Pressure Torsion - HPT, Accumulated Roll Bonding - ARB, etc.), a highly refined derivative of deformation processing, is beginning to see wide use for obtaining a nanophase microstructure in crystalline solids.  NLP: Strategies to Access and Reprogram Your Mind by Tina Berg English | February 27, 2020 | ISBN: N/A | ASIN: B0858TY6C4 | 62 pages | Rar (PDF, AZW3) | 0.79 Mb Have you ever wanted to influence people?  Mystery of Mysteries : Is Evolution a Social Construction By Michael Ruse 1999 | 319 Pages | ISBN: 067446706X | PDF | 5 MB The structure of the book consists of a series of dichotomies used to highlight the different ways science is approached and practiced, contrasting how cultural and epistemic values play a role in evolutionary science. Ruse starts with the contrasting philosophical frameworks of Thomas Kuhn (i.e., cultural) and Karl Popper (i.e. epistemic); they provide the ways in which the evolutionists of the book should be assessed. Erasmus Darwin's crude and speculative approach is contrasted to Charles Darwin's rigorous empirical one. Richard Dawkins' emphasis on the importance of the individual and natural selection is compared to Stephen Jay Gould's emphasis on the group's role with a corresponding de-emphasis on natural selection in favour of saltationism. Richard Lewontin's Marxist-inspired de-emphasis of adaptationism, arguing for the interacting roles of adaptation and environment, "one blending into the other" (p. 167), is contrasted with the prominence of adaptationism in the Southerner's Edward O. Wilson's progressive view of evolution. Finally, Geoffrey Parker's Darwinian adaptationism is compared to Jack Sepkoski's kinetic model of alternating rapid diversification and consolidation (once an ecological niche is filled); both employ a staunch empiricism and a Popperian "falsifiability criterion". As the book progresses, Ruse points out that there is a progression towards an ideal scientific methodology; it is one that becomes increasingly purged of cultural values and is better understood in the Popperian framework than the Kuhnian one. Unfortunately, on a number of occasions Ruse forces a tenuous connection between scientific ideas and cultural background. As an example, he quotes Jack Sepkoski's disregard for his Christian educational background, "the Christian brothers had beaten religion out of me while trying to beat it into to me'" (p. 231), as evidence of his indifference to it in his work, but on the following page he notes that there is a very strong Herbert Spencer element of "states of dynamic equilibrium" (progress followed by a pause, followed by further progress) in his work, in spite of never having read of word of his: "... again we have reason to think that we have a culture-drenched vision, a neo-Spencerian one, rather than raw data" (p. 232), or "... or is Sepkoski (unconsciously) simply reflecting an American [Spencerian] tradition" (p. 233) . Why has Spenser left his mark on Sepkoski but not Christianity? Isn't there a progressive or teleological element in Christianity which could have left its "unconscious" mark on Sepkoski despite of his proclaimed "indifference"? If denying the role of one cultural influence, why not deny the role of both? On another occasion, Ruse mentions that Geoffrey Parker draws an analogy with painting in order to describe his approach to science, but Ruse then comments, "... this philosophy of science does not necessarily mean that Parker's values intrude into his science" (p. 211). Ruse tends to be selective about his examples and the lessons he draws from them. This is a book that should be read with a very critical eye because Ruse occasionally oversimplifies and forces circular pegs into square holes in order to accommodate his theses. But it is also an approach with a pedantic purpose intended to show how one should assess what makes good science and accordingly how evolutionary science has progressed towards a high scientific standard. This approach does a good job highlighting similarities and differences - just remember it can be forced. In the end, Ruse argues that although Kuhn and Popper provide insight how science is practiced ("Both of our philosophers captured part of the overall picture" (p. 249)), it is the latter approach which should be the goal of science and is the "paradigm" of modern evolution. This book is packed with many interesting ideas from the post-Darwinian period, which is different from your typical history of evolution which focuses on the pre-Darwinian period. I rate this book 3.5 stars. |
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