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POPSNotes on a Sick Planet The authors may reach a bit when they try to sound less square, likening the buying of compact fluorescent light bulbs to “an upgrade on your iTunes software.” But they make the science relevant and enjoyable with abundant visuals and conclude with some meaty ways for kids to make a difference. The old standbys are all there (switch light bulbs, recycle, use canvas bags at the grocery store). But I smiled on noticing something new: the authors suggest some “sustainable careers” kids can consider, like meteorologist and “glacial geologist.”
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POPSPoliticizing Science: The Alchemy of Policymaking (Free Ebook) In this book leading scientists share their experiences and observations of developing and testing hypotheses, offering insights on the dangers of manipulating science for political gain. It describes how politicization--whether by misapplication, overextension, or outright manipulation of the scientific record to advance particular policy agendas--imposes expenditures of money, missed opportunities, and burdens on the economy.
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POPS"Are We Rome?" - Book Review "Are We Rome?" is an essay in polemic, not scholarship, and Mr. Murphy does not set out to analyze the deep structural forces of Roman or American history. Instead, he makes a tour of contemporary American politics, and speculates about Roman parallels to very upto-the-minute problems. In many ways, Mr. Murphy's argument is less about America in general than about the Bush administration in particular. Thus he worries about the transfer of government functions to private contractors like Halliburton, seeing an analogy to the Roman system of patronage.
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POPSAztec Calendars and Sun Stone (page scans) BibliOdyssey does it again: Here, you can find awesome pagescans from a 1790 book, describing the Aztec finds in Mexico, by Antonio de León y Gama. The pagescans include an awesome illustration of the famous Aztec Sun Stone (a.k.a "Calendar".) BibliOdyssey says, Library of Congress digitized the whole book and added to the online collection - can be found at this link . (The book is in Spanish.)
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POPSIllusions of Security Are the efforts of "security" in the post 9/11 world achieves any success or do all these surveillance systems and security measures cause new problems for democracies while failing to identify the "real terrorists"? Maureen Webb 's new book investigates this critical subject. The below clip is from Democracy Now web site and you can also view an interview with Webb in streaming MP3 format here .
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POPSMusei Capitolini: Stunning Illustrations from a Rare Book The images here (click for full size versions) come from a 4-volume set from ~1755, 'Musei Capitolini' which were (pretty obviously) a catalogue of the sculptural holdings of the Capitoline Museums of Rome - a group of art and archaeological repositories atop the Capitoline Hill in Rome. The majority of the engravings appear to be from ancient Roman sculptures but there are occasional items from ancient Greece and Egypt. An awesome page scan set (again) from BibliOdyssey. This time, it's a 18th century art and history reference book.
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POPS Thomas Paine by Craig Nelson (Book Review) Craig Nelson writes that Paine and almost all of his Enlightenment colleagues spent their last years "believing that their revolutionary programs had failed, that the philosophy of the light had been proved a pipe dream...". Nevertheless, he adds, today, nearly half of the world's nations have democratic elections and the freedoms which Paine's revolutionary generation hoped to achieve. "Of Paine's many reasons for daring to publish work for which he could have been hanged or guillotined in the United Colonies, the United Kingdom, or France, this legacy is his glory."
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POPSJamieson Celestial Atlas Excellent scans from a 1822 edition Celestial Atlas. A vintage from BibliOdyysey. (Check the source - many page scans.)
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POPSeScholarship Editions: Online Library An important part of the collection (about 500 books out of 2000) is open to public while University of California staff and students have full access to the entire site. Browse public titles and you'll find many interesting books that you can read online.
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POPSAn Interview with Neil Gaiman The fact that the Sandman books sell forever is really nice, and then there’s me as a novelist, which is a completely different thing, and then there’s movies where people come along and say, “Here’s a million dollars,” and you say, “Thank you very much, that’s very nice.” You kick yourself and you look at the numbers on the check and you say, “I just got a check for a million dollars.”
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POPSMore bookworm sites Five more books sites, all from Britain. First one is a "Women's Site" and my favorite among others. All have RSS feeds to follow the updates via news aggregators.
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POPSEerie and Creepy: Horror Comics Revisited I still browse the old issues with a great pleasure. With the legendary "Tales From The Crypt", these are monumental horror classics. You can find some nostalgic material here and a covers gallery.
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POPSPamuk wins Nobel Literature prize He has published six books in English, the first of these being The White Castle, primarily a historical novel set in 17th-century Istanbul, but also about how stories and fictions build self-perception. He has faced prosecution for talking about the murder of hundreds of thousands of Armenians in Turkey during World War I and thousands of Kurds in subsequent years.
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POPSEgyptian Religion - A Handbook (Illustrated) This is one of the most popular introductory books on Ancient Egyptian religion and culture, written by an expert, Adolf Erman and published in 1910. Richly illustrated and well organized, it's a handy reference source for Ancient Egypt enthusiasts. The PDF version here is freely downloadable, like all the other very important works of pioneer archaeologists, ancient near-east specialists and egyptologists. I recommend to browse the Core Texts Library of Etana , you may find many interesting books and documents.
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POPSReggae, Rastafari, and the Rhetoric of Social Control From 1959 to 1971, Jamaica's popular music became identified with the Rastafarians, a social movement that gave voice to the country's poor black communities. In response to this challenge, the Jamaican government banned politically controversial reggae songs from the airwaves and jailed or deported Rastafarian leaders.
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POPSTheft of the Commons Cola companies, as has come out, care a damn for the health of the customers, especially the children. Demonstration effect of the West and the high voltage propaganda with the help of the film and sports personalities on the electronic media have a tremendous impact on the children. Earlier the corporates were satisfied with grabbing a share in the market, but now they want to grab the minds of the prospective customers. They want to dominate the personal attitudes and loyalties of the children for all time to come. “This motivation to insinuate brand names in the formation of children’s identities has brought commercials into every imaginable aspect of a child’s daily life.” As we have noted in the beginning, the children are an integral part of the commons and the future of a society depends on them. One may very well see where the society may head if this silent grabbing of a very valuable part of the commons is not stopped.
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POPSWhat If...? An alternative history of the world If Rome had survived it might have fought off Islam where Byzantium failed, and handled the Mongols better than their medieval successors. In the Americas they wouldn't have practiced genocide as the British did, but assimilated, in the Roman way. In Europe, united in empire, there would be no feudalism, no chivalry - no parliaments - and no Great Britain.
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POPSAtlantis in Antarctica? A brief summary of "When The Sky Fell": Randy and Rose Flem-Ath's best-selling book on Atlantis which claimed the lost continent was nothing but Antarctica.
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