Author: Guido Mina di Sospiro
Publisher: Quest Books
ISBN: 083563194X
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 224
Book Description
When a mortifying defeat to his teenage son rekindles his lifelong passion for table tennis, keen philosopher Guido Mina di Sospiro sets out to learn the game properly. Guido’s love for spinning a feather-weight ball takes him from his local Ping-Pong club, populated by idiosyncratic players with extraordinary stories to tell, to training drills with a world-class coach. This seemingly harmless game also leads him into sticky situations in the CIA headquarters and the ganglands of Washington, D.C. Woven throughout his Ping-Pong epiphany are philosophical ruminations on Plato and Aristotle, metaphysicians and empiricists, Jung’s dark shadow, Sun Tzu’s war tactics, the I Ching, and much more. As Guido’s journey takes him from Big Sur to a nail-biting showdown in China against a string of elite players, he finds that Ping-Pong can teach us a surprising amount about life.
The Metaphysics of Ping-Pong
Author: Guido Mina di Sospiro
Publisher: Quest Books
ISBN: 083563194X
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 224
Book Description
When a mortifying defeat to his teenage son rekindles his lifelong passion for table tennis, keen philosopher Guido Mina di Sospiro sets out to learn the game properly. Guido’s love for spinning a feather-weight ball takes him from his local Ping-Pong club, populated by idiosyncratic players with extraordinary stories to tell, to training drills with a world-class coach. This seemingly harmless game also leads him into sticky situations in the CIA headquarters and the ganglands of Washington, D.C. Woven throughout his Ping-Pong epiphany are philosophical ruminations on Plato and Aristotle, metaphysicians and empiricists, Jung’s dark shadow, Sun Tzu’s war tactics, the I Ching, and much more. As Guido’s journey takes him from Big Sur to a nail-biting showdown in China against a string of elite players, he finds that Ping-Pong can teach us a surprising amount about life.
Publisher: Quest Books
ISBN: 083563194X
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 224
Book Description
When a mortifying defeat to his teenage son rekindles his lifelong passion for table tennis, keen philosopher Guido Mina di Sospiro sets out to learn the game properly. Guido’s love for spinning a feather-weight ball takes him from his local Ping-Pong club, populated by idiosyncratic players with extraordinary stories to tell, to training drills with a world-class coach. This seemingly harmless game also leads him into sticky situations in the CIA headquarters and the ganglands of Washington, D.C. Woven throughout his Ping-Pong epiphany are philosophical ruminations on Plato and Aristotle, metaphysicians and empiricists, Jung’s dark shadow, Sun Tzu’s war tactics, the I Ching, and much more. As Guido’s journey takes him from Big Sur to a nail-biting showdown in China against a string of elite players, he finds that Ping-Pong can teach us a surprising amount about life.
The Story of Yew
Author: Guido Mina Di Sospiro
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781899171637
Category : Yew
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
A tree that had seen a thousand winters before the Vikings came to America tells the stories of what she and her fellow trees have seen in their lives.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781899171637
Category : Yew
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
A tree that had seen a thousand winters before the Vikings came to America tells the stories of what she and her fellow trees have seen in their lives.
The Forbidden Book
Author: Joscelyn Godwin
Publisher: Red Wheel Weiser
ISBN: 193887501X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 292
Book Description
An esoteric thriller full of sex, magic, and politics. This gripping page-turner has something for every fan of occult fiction: a murder mystery set against religious extremism with symbolism, alchemy, and magic fueling the action. The evocative setting of Venice and the Veneto region of Italy dominates the plot, along with vivid scences in Santiage de Compostela, Provence, Washington, and the Vatican.
Publisher: Red Wheel Weiser
ISBN: 193887501X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 292
Book Description
An esoteric thriller full of sex, magic, and politics. This gripping page-turner has something for every fan of occult fiction: a murder mystery set against religious extremism with symbolism, alchemy, and magic fueling the action. The evocative setting of Venice and the Veneto region of Italy dominates the plot, along with vivid scences in Santiage de Compostela, Provence, Washington, and the Vatican.
Forbidden Fruits
Author: Joscelyn Godwin
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1644111586
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 326
Book Description
A bold thriller filled with esoteric secrets, psychedelic rituals, blackmail, and murder • Follows American archaeologist Monica Bettlheim, her benefactor Maltese billionaire Sebastian Pinto, and Pinto’s son Rafael as they make startling discoveries about the ancient world, hallucinogenic sacraments, and modern-day crime syndicates • Reveals a secret ritual at the heart of Christianity, knowledge of which was passed on underground by Gnostics and alchemists for centuries • Explore the use of the Kykeon, the psychedelic brew of the Eleusinian mysteries, which offers those who drink it a direct experience of God Amid the European refugee crisis, with the background of Southern Europe having become the point of arrival for hundreds of thousands of desperate migrants, Monica Bettlheim, an American archaeologist, is trying to recapture her former fame. She has a mission to uncover prehistoric cultures that conventional archaeology and history both fear and deny. Her search is sponsored by an eccentric aristocrat, the larger-than-life Maltese billionaire Sebastian Pinto. On an underwater expedition off the coast of Malta, Monica finds a mysterious golden pomegranate that dates back to prehistoric times. Within it, she discovers ancient remnants of the Kykeon, the hallucinogenic sacrament of the Eleusinian mysteries, which offers those who drink it a direct experience of God. As the discovery leads to blackmail and murder, Monica uncovers a secret ritual right at the heart of Christianity, knowledge of which was passed on underground by Gnostics and alchemists for centuries. Reluctantly, Monica teams up with the elusive and troubled Rafael, Pinto’s son, who for some years has been deeply immersed in esoteric studies. Driven by the need to avenge a murder and uncover the activities of an international crime syndicate, they risk their lives by reviving the sacred ritual--and are confronted by the most terrifying revelation of all.
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1644111586
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 326
Book Description
A bold thriller filled with esoteric secrets, psychedelic rituals, blackmail, and murder • Follows American archaeologist Monica Bettlheim, her benefactor Maltese billionaire Sebastian Pinto, and Pinto’s son Rafael as they make startling discoveries about the ancient world, hallucinogenic sacraments, and modern-day crime syndicates • Reveals a secret ritual at the heart of Christianity, knowledge of which was passed on underground by Gnostics and alchemists for centuries • Explore the use of the Kykeon, the psychedelic brew of the Eleusinian mysteries, which offers those who drink it a direct experience of God Amid the European refugee crisis, with the background of Southern Europe having become the point of arrival for hundreds of thousands of desperate migrants, Monica Bettlheim, an American archaeologist, is trying to recapture her former fame. She has a mission to uncover prehistoric cultures that conventional archaeology and history both fear and deny. Her search is sponsored by an eccentric aristocrat, the larger-than-life Maltese billionaire Sebastian Pinto. On an underwater expedition off the coast of Malta, Monica finds a mysterious golden pomegranate that dates back to prehistoric times. Within it, she discovers ancient remnants of the Kykeon, the hallucinogenic sacrament of the Eleusinian mysteries, which offers those who drink it a direct experience of God. As the discovery leads to blackmail and murder, Monica uncovers a secret ritual right at the heart of Christianity, knowledge of which was passed on underground by Gnostics and alchemists for centuries. Reluctantly, Monica teams up with the elusive and troubled Rafael, Pinto’s son, who for some years has been deeply immersed in esoteric studies. Driven by the need to avenge a murder and uncover the activities of an international crime syndicate, they risk their lives by reviving the sacred ritual--and are confronted by the most terrifying revelation of all.
Office Hours with a Geometric Group Theorist
Author: Matt Clay
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400885396
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 456
Book Description
Geometric group theory is the study of the interplay between groups and the spaces they act on, and has its roots in the works of Henri Poincaré, Felix Klein, J.H.C. Whitehead, and Max Dehn. Office Hours with a Geometric Group Theorist brings together leading experts who provide one-on-one instruction on key topics in this exciting and relatively new field of mathematics. It's like having office hours with your most trusted math professors. An essential primer for undergraduates making the leap to graduate work, the book begins with free groups—actions of free groups on trees, algorithmic questions about free groups, the ping-pong lemma, and automorphisms of free groups. It goes on to cover several large-scale geometric invariants of groups, including quasi-isometry groups, Dehn functions, Gromov hyperbolicity, and asymptotic dimension. It also delves into important examples of groups, such as Coxeter groups, Thompson's groups, right-angled Artin groups, lamplighter groups, mapping class groups, and braid groups. The tone is conversational throughout, and the instruction is driven by examples. Accessible to students who have taken a first course in abstract algebra, Office Hours with a Geometric Group Theorist also features numerous exercises and in-depth projects designed to engage readers and provide jumping-off points for research projects.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400885396
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 456
Book Description
Geometric group theory is the study of the interplay between groups and the spaces they act on, and has its roots in the works of Henri Poincaré, Felix Klein, J.H.C. Whitehead, and Max Dehn. Office Hours with a Geometric Group Theorist brings together leading experts who provide one-on-one instruction on key topics in this exciting and relatively new field of mathematics. It's like having office hours with your most trusted math professors. An essential primer for undergraduates making the leap to graduate work, the book begins with free groups—actions of free groups on trees, algorithmic questions about free groups, the ping-pong lemma, and automorphisms of free groups. It goes on to cover several large-scale geometric invariants of groups, including quasi-isometry groups, Dehn functions, Gromov hyperbolicity, and asymptotic dimension. It also delves into important examples of groups, such as Coxeter groups, Thompson's groups, right-angled Artin groups, lamplighter groups, mapping class groups, and braid groups. The tone is conversational throughout, and the instruction is driven by examples. Accessible to students who have taken a first course in abstract algebra, Office Hours with a Geometric Group Theorist also features numerous exercises and in-depth projects designed to engage readers and provide jumping-off points for research projects.
Why Does the World Exist
Author: Jim Holt
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0871404095
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 321
Book Description
In this astonishing and profound work, an irreverent sleuth traces the riddleof existence from the ancient world to modern times.
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0871404095
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 321
Book Description
In this astonishing and profound work, an irreverent sleuth traces the riddleof existence from the ancient world to modern times.
The Comatose Patient
Author: Eelco F.M. Wijdicks
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199331235
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 809
Book Description
The Comatose Patient, Second Edition, is a critical historical overview of the concepts of consciousness and unconsciousness, covering all aspects of coma within 100 detailed case vignettes. This comprehensive text includes principles of neurologic examination of comatose patients as well as instruction of the FOUR Score coma scale, and also discusses landmark legal cases and ethical problems. As the Chair of Division of Critical Care Neurology at Mayo Clinic, Dr. Wijdicks uses his extensive knowledge to discuss a new practical multistep approach to the diagnosis of the comatose patient. Additionally, this edition includes extensive coverage of the interpretation of neuroimaging and its role in daily practice and decision making, as well as management in the emergency room and ICU. Dr. Wijdicks details long-term supportive care and an appropriate approach to communication with family members about end-of-life decision making. In addition, video clips on neurologic examination and neurologic manifestations seen in comatose patients can be found here: http://oxfordmedicine.com/comatosepatient2e. All video recordings from the first edition have been reformatted and remastered for optimal use, and several more video clips of patients have also been included.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199331235
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 809
Book Description
The Comatose Patient, Second Edition, is a critical historical overview of the concepts of consciousness and unconsciousness, covering all aspects of coma within 100 detailed case vignettes. This comprehensive text includes principles of neurologic examination of comatose patients as well as instruction of the FOUR Score coma scale, and also discusses landmark legal cases and ethical problems. As the Chair of Division of Critical Care Neurology at Mayo Clinic, Dr. Wijdicks uses his extensive knowledge to discuss a new practical multistep approach to the diagnosis of the comatose patient. Additionally, this edition includes extensive coverage of the interpretation of neuroimaging and its role in daily practice and decision making, as well as management in the emergency room and ICU. Dr. Wijdicks details long-term supportive care and an appropriate approach to communication with family members about end-of-life decision making. In addition, video clips on neurologic examination and neurologic manifestations seen in comatose patients can be found here: http://oxfordmedicine.com/comatosepatient2e. All video recordings from the first edition have been reformatted and remastered for optimal use, and several more video clips of patients have also been included.
Calculating God
Author: Robert J. Sawyer
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1429914599
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 338
Book Description
Calculating God is the new near-future SF thriller from the popular and award-winning Robert J. Sawyer. An alien shuttle craft lands outside the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. A six-legged, two-armed alien emerges, who says, in perfect English, "Take me to a paleontologist." It seems that Earth, and the alien's home planet, and the home planet of another alien species traveling on the alien mother ship, all experienced the same five cataclysmic events at about the same time (one example of these "cataclysmic events" would be the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs). Both alien races believe this proves the existence of God: i.e. he's obviously been playing with the evolution of life on each of these planets. From this provocative launch point, Sawyer tells a fast-paced, and morally and intellectually challenging, SF story that just grows larger and larger in scope. The evidence of God's universal existence is not universally well received on Earth, nor even immediately believed. And it reveals nothing of God's nature. In fact. it poses more questions than it answers. When a supernova explodes out in the galaxy but close enough to wipe out life on all three home-worlds, the big question is, Will God intervene or is this the sixth cataclysm:? Calculating God is SF on the grand scale. Calculating God is a 2001 Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novel. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1429914599
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 338
Book Description
Calculating God is the new near-future SF thriller from the popular and award-winning Robert J. Sawyer. An alien shuttle craft lands outside the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. A six-legged, two-armed alien emerges, who says, in perfect English, "Take me to a paleontologist." It seems that Earth, and the alien's home planet, and the home planet of another alien species traveling on the alien mother ship, all experienced the same five cataclysmic events at about the same time (one example of these "cataclysmic events" would be the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs). Both alien races believe this proves the existence of God: i.e. he's obviously been playing with the evolution of life on each of these planets. From this provocative launch point, Sawyer tells a fast-paced, and morally and intellectually challenging, SF story that just grows larger and larger in scope. The evidence of God's universal existence is not universally well received on Earth, nor even immediately believed. And it reveals nothing of God's nature. In fact. it poses more questions than it answers. When a supernova explodes out in the galaxy but close enough to wipe out life on all three home-worlds, the big question is, Will God intervene or is this the sixth cataclysm:? Calculating God is SF on the grand scale. Calculating God is a 2001 Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novel. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Radical Embodied Cognitive Science
Author: Anthony Chemero
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262516470
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 269
Book Description
A proposal for a new way to do cognitive science argues that cognition should be described in terms of agent-environment dynamics rather than computation and representation. While philosophers of mind have been arguing over the status of mental representations in cognitive science, cognitive scientists have been quietly engaged in studying perception, action, and cognition without explaining them in terms of mental representation. In this book, Anthony Chemero describes this nonrepresentational approach (which he terms radical embodied cognitive science), puts it in historical and conceptual context, and applies it to traditional problems in the philosophy of mind. Radical embodied cognitive science is a direct descendant of the American naturalist psychology of William James and John Dewey, and follows them in viewing perception and cognition to be understandable only in terms of action in the environment. Chemero argues that cognition should be described in terms of agent-environment dynamics rather than in terms of computation and representation. After outlining this orientation to cognition, Chemero proposes a methodology: dynamical systems theory, which would explain things dynamically and without reference to representation. He also advances a background theory: Gibsonian ecological psychology, “shored up” and clarified. Chemero then looks at some traditional philosophical problems (reductionism, epistemological skepticism, metaphysical realism, consciousness) through the lens of radical embodied cognitive science and concludes that the comparative ease with which it resolves these problems, combined with its empirical promise, makes this approach to cognitive science a rewarding one. “Jerry Fodor is my favorite philosopher,” Chemero writes in his preface, adding, “I think that Jerry Fodor is wrong about nearly everything.” With this book, Chemero explains nonrepresentational, dynamical, ecological cognitive science as clearly and as rigorously as Jerry Fodor explained computational cognitive science in his classic work The Language of Thought.
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262516470
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 269
Book Description
A proposal for a new way to do cognitive science argues that cognition should be described in terms of agent-environment dynamics rather than computation and representation. While philosophers of mind have been arguing over the status of mental representations in cognitive science, cognitive scientists have been quietly engaged in studying perception, action, and cognition without explaining them in terms of mental representation. In this book, Anthony Chemero describes this nonrepresentational approach (which he terms radical embodied cognitive science), puts it in historical and conceptual context, and applies it to traditional problems in the philosophy of mind. Radical embodied cognitive science is a direct descendant of the American naturalist psychology of William James and John Dewey, and follows them in viewing perception and cognition to be understandable only in terms of action in the environment. Chemero argues that cognition should be described in terms of agent-environment dynamics rather than in terms of computation and representation. After outlining this orientation to cognition, Chemero proposes a methodology: dynamical systems theory, which would explain things dynamically and without reference to representation. He also advances a background theory: Gibsonian ecological psychology, “shored up” and clarified. Chemero then looks at some traditional philosophical problems (reductionism, epistemological skepticism, metaphysical realism, consciousness) through the lens of radical embodied cognitive science and concludes that the comparative ease with which it resolves these problems, combined with its empirical promise, makes this approach to cognitive science a rewarding one. “Jerry Fodor is my favorite philosopher,” Chemero writes in his preface, adding, “I think that Jerry Fodor is wrong about nearly everything.” With this book, Chemero explains nonrepresentational, dynamical, ecological cognitive science as clearly and as rigorously as Jerry Fodor explained computational cognitive science in his classic work The Language of Thought.
Bad Behaviour
Author: Rebecca Starford
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781760292683
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 272
Book Description
It was supposed to be a place where teenagers would learn resilience, confidence and independence, where long hikes and runs in the bush would make their bodies strong and foster a connection with the natural world. Living in bare wooden huts, cut off from the outside world, the students would experience a very different kind of schooling, one intended to have a strong influence over the kind of adults they would eventually become. Fourteen-year-old Rebecca Starford spent a year at this school in the bush. In her boarding house sixteen girls were left largely unsupervised, a combination of the worst behaved students and some of the most socially vulnerable. As everyone tried to fit in and cope with their feelings of isolation and homesickness, Rebecca found herself joining ranks with the powerful girls, becoming both a participant--and later a victim-- of various forms of bullying and aggression. Bad Behaviour tells the story of that year, a time of friendship and joy, but also of shame and fear. It explores how those crucial experiences affected Rebecca as an adult and shaped her future relationships, and asks courageous questions about the nature of female friendship. Moving, wise and painfully honest, this extraordinary memoir shows how bad behaviour from childhood, in all its forms, can be so often and so easily repeated throughout our adult lives.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781760292683
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 272
Book Description
It was supposed to be a place where teenagers would learn resilience, confidence and independence, where long hikes and runs in the bush would make their bodies strong and foster a connection with the natural world. Living in bare wooden huts, cut off from the outside world, the students would experience a very different kind of schooling, one intended to have a strong influence over the kind of adults they would eventually become. Fourteen-year-old Rebecca Starford spent a year at this school in the bush. In her boarding house sixteen girls were left largely unsupervised, a combination of the worst behaved students and some of the most socially vulnerable. As everyone tried to fit in and cope with their feelings of isolation and homesickness, Rebecca found herself joining ranks with the powerful girls, becoming both a participant--and later a victim-- of various forms of bullying and aggression. Bad Behaviour tells the story of that year, a time of friendship and joy, but also of shame and fear. It explores how those crucial experiences affected Rebecca as an adult and shaped her future relationships, and asks courageous questions about the nature of female friendship. Moving, wise and painfully honest, this extraordinary memoir shows how bad behaviour from childhood, in all its forms, can be so often and so easily repeated throughout our adult lives.