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 A Letter from Frank: The Second World War Through the Eyes of a Canadian Soldier and a German Paratrooper by Stephen J. Colombo English | March 26th, 2012 | ISBN: 1554889685 | 264 pages | True EPUB | 2.06 MB On the last day of the Second World War, Frank and Russ fought each other. In the days after, they became friends.  2019 International Bamboo Construction Competition: From the Concepts to the Realized Pavilions English | 2022 | ISBN: 3030919897 | 275 Pages | PDF | 18 MB This volume builds upon the 2019 International Bamboo Construction Competition (IBCC 2019) from the Concepts to the Realized Pavilions. Several designed projects are described, and particular attention is devoted to the realized prototypes. It also presents the Bamboo Eye, an important example of architecture realized by INBAR for the 2019 Beijing Horticultural Expo. As such, the volume provides an overview of the use of bamboo poles and engineered bamboo products for temporary and normal constructions, and represents a compact review of the applications of bamboo poles and/or engineered bamboo products in the construction industry. This book will be of interest for researchers, architects and structural engineers in field of bamboo constructions.  'Pataphysics: A Useless Guide By Andrew Hugill 2012 | 296 Pages | ISBN: 0262017792 | PDF | 3 MB Of all the French cultural exports over the last 150 years or so, 'pataphysics--the science of imaginary solutions and the laws governing exceptions--has proven to be one of the most durable. Originating in the wild imagination of French poet and playwright Alfred Jarry and his schoolmates, resisting clear definition, purposefully useless, and almost impossible to understand, 'pataphysics nevertheless lies around the roots of Absurdism, Dada, futurism, surrealism, situationism, and other key cultural developments of the twentieth century. In this account of the evolution and influence of 'pataphysics, Andrew Hugill offers an informed exposition of a rich and difficult territory, staying aloft on a tightrope stretched between the twin dangers of oversimplifying a serious subject and taking a joke too seriously. Drawing on more than twenty-five years' research, Hugill maps the 'pataphysical presence (partly conscious and acknowledged but largely unconscious and unacknowledged) in literature, theater, music, the visual arts, and the culture at large, and even detects 'pataphysical influence in the social sciences and the sciences. He offers many substantial excerpts (in English translation) from primary sources, intercalated with a thorough explication of key themes and events of 'pataphysical history. In a Jarryesque touch, he provides these in reverse chronological order, beginning with a survey of 'pataphysics in the digital age and working backward to Jarry and beyond. He looks specifically at the work of Jean Baudrillard, Georges Perec, Italo Calvino, J. G. Ballard, Asger Jorn, Gilles Deleuze, Roger Shattuck, Jacques Prévert, Antonin Artaud, René Clair, the Marx Brothers, Joan Miró, Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, James Joyce, Flann O'Brien, Raymond Roussel, Jean-Pierre Brisset, and many others."This book is a past and future history of 'pataphysics, and should give great comfort to those conflicted souls (everybody) who still believe in anything." -- Andrei Codrescu, author of The Posthuman Dada Guide: Tzara and Lenin Play Chess."Andrew Hugill masterfully manages the apparent impossibility of writing seriously about a subject that makes unseriousness its core. I discovered 'pataphysics at age 16 and was immediately drawn to its irreverence and the impossibility of determining whether it was deep or pretending to be deep or something else entirely. Now that Hugill, himself a composer of pataphysical music, has explicated the intricacies, subtleties, and slapstick of 'pataphysics, I'm beginning to understand how much more there is to the practice than meets the mind." -- Howard Rheingold, critic and author of Net Smart, Tools for Thought, The Virtual Community, and Smart Mobs" 'Pataphysics: A Useless Guide is a richly informative critical overview of the wide-ranging influence of (and influences on) 'pataphysics, from Groucho to Deleuze, OuLiPo, Borges, Bõk, Situationisism, SciFi, Raymond Roussel, and a wildly creative crew of fellow travelers, diviners, alchemists, and literary and theatrical pioneers. Andrew Hugill's encyclopedic tribute shows how, for more than a century, Alfred Jarry's precocious mind theater has remained exhilaratingly exceptional and exceptionally exhilarating." -- Charles Bernstein, Donald T. Regan Professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of Pennsylvania; author of Attack of the Difficult Poems: Essays and Inventions"Hugill has written an essential, sharp book on this vital subject. He has a brisk style that gives the book pace and punch. It is authoritative and full of wonders. He gives the geography of the movement and maps out the exhilaration of uselessness." -- Richard Marshall, 3:AM Magazine"Andrew Hugill, professor at De Montfort University and, equally important, Commandeur Requis of the Ordre de la Grand Gidouille in the Collège de 'Pataphysique, has in well under three hundred pages traced the lineaments of a science which, like a particle in quantum mechanics, fundamentally resists accurate measurement. He describes a field known for its wordplay and willful obfuscation with clear language, an admirable breadth of reference, and an abiding respect for the complexity and, well, willfull obfuscation of his subject." -- Andrew Hultkrans, Bookforum"From the Theatre of the Absurd through to modern art, literature, music, even postmodern philosophy, pataphysics has been one of the driving forces of the avant-garde for more than a century. Hugill's self-deprecating study provides us with not only an intellectual history of this fascinating but elusive community but also, and no less importantly, proffers valuable clues as to the nature of the creativity of the attitudes and tenets of its members." -- Times Higher Education
 English | 2022 | ISBN: 1032139900 | 401 pages | True PDF | 5.62 MB Davanti Nella Gara, an Italian bicycle company, makes the best racing bikes in the world. But after decades of market dominance, competitors have brought the industry leader back to the peloton. The company's second-generation owner longs for retirement, but a tired product lineup is pushing down profits and the firm's market value will never support his ride into the sunset. The flawed but beloved owner seeks out the counsel of an old friend and successful businessman, who steers him toward a fast and remarkable transformation, one fueled by a relentless focus on innovation excellence. An engaging business novel,Winning Innovationdives into the art and science of innovation; the thrills of the European bike-racing circuit; the vibrant landscape and cuisine of Italy; and a cast of intriguing characters who work to put Davanti on the road to sustained prosperity. The company's leader isn't afraid to learn and apply new ideas to reenergize his company and finds he cares more about his employees than he could ever imagine. A young innovator struggles to see a product idea to fruition as well as rise into management -andhe falls in love along the way. A newly promoted R&D director brings teamwork and transparency to product development and aligns the entire company around innovation.
 English | 2022 | ISBN: 0367769662 , 978-0367769659 | 285 pages | True PDF | 2.59 MB This book reviews the political significance of COVID-19 in the context of earlier pandemic encounters and scares to understand the ways in which it challenges the existing individual health, domestic order, international health governance actors, and, more fundamentally, the circulation-based modus operandi of the present world order. It argues that contagious diseases should be regarded as complex open-ended phenomena with various features and are not reducible merely to biology and epidemiology. They are, as such, fundamentally politosomatic, namely that they disrupt, agitate, and trigger large-scale processes because individual somatic-level anxieties stem from individuals' sensing immediate danger through the networks of their local and global connectedness. The author further argues that pandemics have somatic effects in political expressions that transform the epidemic into national security dramas which should not, for the sake of efficient health governance, be treated as aspects extraneous to the disease itself. The book highlights that when a serious infectious disease spreads, a 'threat' is very often externalized into a culturally meaningful 'foreign' entity. Pandemics tend to be territorialized, nationalized, ethnicized, and racialized.
 English | 2021 | ISBN: 3030825310 | 810 pages | True PDF EPUB | 127.01 MB This textbook presents a comprehensive introduction to ultrafast laser physics with a keen awareness of the needs of graduate students. It is self-contained and ready to use for both ultrafast laser courses and background for experimental investigation in the lab. The book starts with an advanced introduction to linear and nonlinear pulse propagation, details Q-switching and modelocking and goes into detail while explaining ultrashort pulse generation and measurement. Finally, the characterization of the laser signals is illustrated, and a broad range of applications presented. A multitude of worked examples and problems with solutions help to deepen the reader's understanding. [center]  English | 2022 | ISBN: 3030933431 | 361 pages | True PDF EPUB | 39.79 MB The book serves as a connecting medium between various domains and Blockchain technology, discussing and embracing how Blockchain technology is transforming all the major sectors of the society. The book facilitates sharing of information, case studies, theoretical and practical knowledge required for Blockchain transformations in various sectors. The book covers different areas that provide the foundational knowledge and comprehensive information about the transformations by Blockchain technology in the fields of business, healthcare, finance, education, supply-chain, sustainability and governance. The book pertains to students, academics, researchers, professionals, and policy makers working in the area of Blockchain technology and related fields. [center]  English | 2022 | ISBN: 3030761509 | 280 pages | True PDF EPUB | 4.55 MB This book is the first systematic and historical account of the Vienna Circle that deals with the relation of logical empiricists with religion as well as theology. Given the standard image of the Vienna Circle as a strong anti-metaphysical group and non-religious philosophical and intellectual movement, this book draws a surprising conclusion, namely, that several members of the famous Moritz Schlick-Circle - e.g., the left wing with Rudolf Carnap, Otto Neurath, Philipp Frank, Edgar Zilsel, but also Schlick himself - dealt with the dualisms of faith/ belief and knowledge, religion and science despite, or because of their non-cognitivist commitment to the values of Enlightenment. One remarkable exception was the philosopher and Rabbi Joseph Schächter, who wrote explicitly on religion and philosophy after the linguistic turn. The book also covers another puzzling figure: the famous logician Kurt Gödel, who wrote on theology and the ontological proof of God in his so far unpublished notebooks. The book opens up new perspectives on the Vienna Circle with its internal philosophical and political pluralism and is of value to philosophers, historians and anybody who isinterested in the relation between science and religion.  English | 2022 | ISBN: 3030924068 | 170 pages | True PDF EPUB | 3.39 MB This monograph reevaluates a school of thought concerned with truth and inquiry. It examines the critique which asserts that it's not possible to live this Early Greek philosophy in practice. The investigation also details new discoveries on the reception of Skepticism by Empiricist Doctors, Early Greek Fathers, Medieval Arabic Thinkers, and Renaissance Thinkers. The author takes a careful look at the apraxia argument and how critics used it. He shows how anti-skeptical arguments rose in different stages of the development of the Skepticism. Coverage also details how the skeptics replied and gave more pragmatic coherence to their philosophy, starting with the proto-skeptics and continuing with the works of Sextus Empiricus. Readers will learn how skepticism endured despite the criticisms, becoming a coherent response to dogmatic philosophies such as Stoicism.  English | 2022 | ISBN: 3030931889 | 217 pages | True PDF EPUB | 5.73 MB This book presents a unified approach to the problem of inequality, combining results from a variety of research fields - the human life cycle, group dynamics, networks, markets, and economic geography. Its main message is that inequality emerges as the natural result of mechanisms operating both in individual human development and in social interaction. It posits that inequality is not an anomalous deviation from a naturally egalitarian social structure; quite to the contrary, inequality is to be expected as part of the human condition. The author states that the growth of inequality, on the other hand, is not a natural law - the level and character of inequality can be affected by collective decisions. This perspective on human inequality has potentially far-reaching consequences both for the political philosophy of inequality and for public policy-making. This book is of interest to a wide interdisciplinary social science readership, including public policy, decision sciences, economic geography, and life course studies. |
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