Author: Robert Carroll
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
ISBN: 1118045637
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 525
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Book Description
A wealth of evidence for doubters and disbelievers "Whether it's the latest shark cartilage scam, or some new 'repressed memory' idiocy that besets you, I suggest you carry a copy of this dictionary at all times, or at least have it within reach as first aid for psychic attacks. We need all the help we can get." -James Randi, President, James Randi Educational Foundation, randi.org "From alternative medicine, aliens, and psychics to the farthest shores of science and beyond, Robert Carroll presents a fascinating look at some of humanity's most strange and wonderful ideas. Refreshing and witty, both believers and unbelievers will find this compendium complete and captivating. Buy this book and feed your head!" -Clifford Pickover, author of The Stars of Heaven and Dreaming the Future "A refreshing compendium of clear thinking, a welcome and potent antidote to the reams of books on the supernatural and pseudoscientific." -John Allen Paulos, author of Innumeracy and A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper "This book covers an amazing range of topics and can protect many people from being scammed." -Stephen Barrett, M.D., quackwatch.org Featuring close to 400 definitions, arguments, and essays on topics ranging from acupuncture to zombies, The Skeptic's Dictionary is a lively, commonsense trove of detailed information on all things supernatural, occult, paranormal, and pseudoscientific. It covers such categories as alternative medicine; cryptozoology; extraterrestrials and UFOs; frauds and hoaxes; junk science; logic and perception; New Age energy; and the psychic. For the open-minded seeker, the soft or hardened skeptic, and the believing doubter, this book offers a remarkable range of information that puts to the test the best arguments of true believers.
Author: Jason Colavito
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1105579891
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 205
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Book Description
Of all the ancient structures scattered across the globe, Egypt's Great Pyramid, built by the Pharaoh Khufu (also known as Cheops) around 2580-2560 BCE on the desert plateau of Giza, has attracted the most attention from ancient astronaut theorists and alternative historians. By some estimates, more has been written about the Great Pyramid than any other topic in ancient history, excepting only the Bible. The sheer number of odd theories about the pyramid has led archaeologists to label fringe investigators "pyramidiots." There is hardly any modern fringe theory about the Great Pyramid that is not derivative of one in place by 1877, the year James Bonwick wrote the overview of the 47 most popular theories about the pyramid that you are about to read. Thus, the following book is essential reading for understanding the history of pyramid theories and how ancient astronaut theorists and alternative archaeologists employ them.
Author: L. L. Wynn
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 0292774095
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 296
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Book Description
2008 — Leeds Honor Book in Urban Anthropology – Society for Urban, National, and Transnational/Global Anthropology Living in Egypt at the turn of the millennium, cultural anthropologist L. L. Wynn was struck by the juxtapositions of Western, Gulf Arab, and Egyptian viewpoints she encountered. For some, Egypt is the land of mummies and pharaohs. For others, it is a vortex of decadence, where nightlife promises a chance to salivate over belly dancers and maybe even glimpse a movie star. Offering a new approach to ethnography, Pyramids and Nightclubs examines cross-cultural encounters to bring to light the counterintuitive ways in which Egypt is defined. Guiding readers on an armchair journey that introduces us to Russian and Australian belly dancers on Nile cruise ships, Egyptian rumors about an Arab prince and his royal entourage, Saudi girls looking for a less restrictive dating scene, and other visitors to this "antique" land, Wynn uses the lens of travel and tourism to depict a fascinating and often surprising version of Egypt, while exploring the concept of stereotype itself. Tracing the history of Western and Arab fascination with Egypt through spurious hunts for lost civilizations and the new economic disparities brought about by the oil industry, Pyramids and Nightclubs ultimately describes the ways in which moments of cultural contact, driven by tourism and labor migration, become eye-opening opportunities for defining self and other.
Author: Peter S. Rudman
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1615921761
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 316
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Book Description
In this fascinating discussion of ancient mathematics, author Peter Rudman does not just chronicle the archeological record of what mathematics was done; he digs deeper into the more important question of why it was done in a particular way. Why did the Egyptians use a bizarre method of expressing fractions? Why did the Babylonians use an awkward number system based on multiples of 60? Rudman answers such intriguing questions, arguing that some mathematical thinking is universal and timeless. The similarity of the Babylonian and Mayan number systems, two cultures widely separated in time and space, illustrates the argument. He then traces the evolution of number systems from finger counting in hunter-gatherer cultures to pebble counting in herder-farmer cultures of the Nile and Tigris-Euphrates valleys, which defined the number systems that continued to be used even after the invention of writing. With separate chapters devoted to the remarkable Egyptian and Babylonian mathematics of the era from about 3500 to 2000 BCE, when all of the basic arithmetic operations and even quadratic algebra became doable, Rudman concludes his interpretation of the archeological record. Since some of the mathematics formerly credited to the Greeks is now known to be a prior Babylonian invention, Rudman adds a chapter that discusses the math used by Pythagoras, Eratosthenes, and Hippasus, which has Babylonian roots, illustrating the watershed difference in abstraction and rigor that the Greeks introduced. He also suggests that we might improve present-day teaching by taking note of how the Greeks taught math. Complete with sidebars offering recreational math brainteasers, this engrossing discussion of the evolution of mathematics will appeal to both scholars and lay readers with an interest in mathematics and its history.
Author: Zahi Hawass
Publisher: Leonardo Paolo Lovari
ISBN: 8898301332
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 251
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Book Description
“World-renowned archaeologist Zahi Hawass. He is one of the world’s authorities on the Giza pyramids, and has spent his life excavating around the pyramids and the Sphinx. He made major important discoveries such as the tombs of the pyramid builders and the secret doors inside the pyramid of Khufu. Dr. Hawass has received fi ve honorary doctorates from different international universities and was named as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People for the year 2006 by Time Magazine. His adventures around the pyramids have been presented in many TV shows. In this book, you will feel the thrill and the adventures of the modern-day Indiana Jones.”
Author: Sally MacDonald
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315431726
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264
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Book Description
Consuming Ancient Egypt examines the influence of Ancient Egypt on the everyday lives of contemporary people, of all ages, throughout the world. It looks at the Egypt tourist sees, Egypt in film and Egypt as the inspiration for opera. It asks why so many books are published each year on Egyptological subjects at all levels, from the austerely academic to the riotous celebrations of Egypt as a land of mystery, enchantment and fantasy. It then considers the ways in which Ancient Egypt interacts with the living world, in architecture, museum going, the acquisition of souvenirs and reproductions, design, and the perpetual appeal of the mummy. The significance of Egypt as an adjunct to (and frequently the subject of) marketing in the consumer society is examined. It reveals much about Egypt's immemorial appeal and the psychology of those who succumb to its magic.
Author: Christopher Wright
Publisher: Hard Shell Word Factory
ISBN: 0759911738
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 228
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Book Description
Thriller/Espionage: Martin Kramer's ambition is to become a deputy director of the CIA. But he brings the threat of nuclear war when he launches Operation Oracle, a personal campaign of hate against Israel.
Author: L. L. Wynn
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 147731704X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 296
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Book Description
Cairo is a city obsessed with honor and respectability—and love affairs. Sara, a working-class woman, has an affair with a married man and becomes pregnant, only to be abandoned by him; Ayah and Zeid, a respectably engaged couple, argue over whether Ayah’s friend is a prostitute or a virgin; Malak, a European belly dancer who sometimes gets paid for sex, wants to be loved by a man who won’t treat her like a whore just because she’s a dancer; and Alia, a Christian banker who left her abusive husband, is the mistress of a wealthy Muslim man, Haroun, who encourages business by hosting risqué parties for other men and their mistresses. Set in transnational Cairo over two decades, Love, Sex, and Desire in Modern Egypt is an ethnography that explores female respectability, male honor, and Western theories and fantasies about Arab society. L. L. Wynn uses stories of love affairs to interrogate three areas of classic anthropological theory: mimesis, kinship, and gift. She develops a broad picture of how individuals love and desire within a cultural and political system that structures the possibilities of, and penalties for, going against sexual and gender norms. Wynn demonstrates that love is at once a moral horizon, an attribute that “naturally” inheres in particular social relations, a social phenomenon strengthened through cultural concepts of gift and kinship, and an emotion deeply felt and desired by individuals.
Author: Terry Deary
Publisher: Scholastic UK
ISBN: 1407129430
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 166
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Book Description
Think you would have liked being an Ancient Egyptian? Not after you've read this book! Discover the disgusting details of their groovy gods, their potty pyramids and (of course!) their mad mummies. Find out how a hunted hippo got his own back on a foul pharaoh! Discover the truth about cool queen Cleo and the curse of Tutankhaumun! There's also a Top Ten of funny pharaohs, a Mad Mummies quiz and lots of foul facts about the messy mistakes the Egyptians made before becoming mummy-making experts. History has never been so horrible!
Author: Jason Thompson
Publisher: American University in Cairo Press
ISBN: 1617978647
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 661
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Book Description
The discovery of ancient Egypt and the development of Egyptology are momentous events in intellectual and cultural history. The history of Egyptology is the story of the people, famous and obscure, who constructed the picture of ancient Egypt that we have today, recovered the Egyptian past while inventing it anew, and made a lost civilization comprehensible to generations of enchanted readers and viewers thousands of years later. This, the third of a three-volume history of Egyptology, follows the progress of the discipline from the trauma of the First World War, through the vicissitudes of the twentieth century, and into Egyptology's new horizons at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Wonderful Things affirms that the history of ancient Egypt has proved continually fascinating, but it also demonstrates that the history of Egyptology is no less so. Only by understanding how Egyptology has developed can we truly understand the Egyptian past.
