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The Marvelous Clouds
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Book Synopsis The Marvelous Clouds by : John Durham Peters
Download or read book The Marvelous Clouds written by John Durham Peters and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2016-08-15 with total page 419 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Peters defines media expansively as elements that compose the human world. Drawing from ideas implicit in media philosophy, Peters argues that media are more than carriers of messages: they are the very infrastructures combining nature and culture that allow human life to thrive. Through an encyclopedic array of examples from the oceans to the skies,The Marvelous Clouds reveals the long prehistory of so-called new media. Digital media, Peters argues, are an extension of early practices tied to the establishment of civilization such as mastering fire, building calendars, reading the stars, creating language, and establishing religions. New media do not take us into uncharted waters, but rather confront us with the deepest and oldest questions of society and ecology: how to manage the relations people have with themselves, others, and the natural world.
Book Synopsis The Marvelous Clouds by : John Durham Peters
Download or read book The Marvelous Clouds written by John Durham Peters and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2015-06-19 with total page 419 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An ambitious re-writing—a re-synthesis, even—of concepts of media and culture . . . It is nothing less than an attempt at a history of Being.” —Los Angeles Review of Books When we speak of clouds these days, it is as likely that we mean data clouds or network clouds as cumulus or stratus. In their sharing of the term, both kinds of clouds reveal an essential truth: that the natural world and the technological world are not so distinct. In The Marvelous Clouds, John Durham Peters argues that though we often think of media as environments, the reverse is just as true—environments are media. Peters defines media expansively as elements that compose the human world. Drawing from ideas implicit in media philosophy, Peters argues that media are more than carriers of messages: they are the very infrastructures combining nature and culture that allow human life to thrive. Through an encyclopedic array of examples from the oceans to the skies, The Marvelous Clouds reveals the long prehistory of so-called new media. Digital media, Peters argues, are an extension of early practices tied to the establishment of civilization such as mastering fire, building calendars, reading the stars, creating language, and establishing religions. New media do not take us into uncharted waters, but rather confront us with the deepest and oldest questions of society and ecology: how to manage the relations people have with themselves, others, and the natural world. A wide-ranging meditation on the many means we have employed to cope with the struggles of existence—from navigation to farming, meteorology to Google—The Marvelous Clouds shows how media lie at the very heart of our interactions with the world around us.
Book Synopsis The Marvelous Clouds by : John Durham Peters
Download or read book The Marvelous Clouds written by John Durham Peters and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2015-06-19 with total page 419 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In medias res -- Understanding media -- Of cetaceans and ships; or, the moorings of our being -- The fire sermon -- Lights in the firmament: sky media I (Chronos) -- The times and the seasons: sky media II (Kairos) -- The face and the book (inscription media) -- God and Google -- Conclusion: the sabbath of meaning -- Appendix: nonsimultaneity in cetacean communication.
Book Synopsis Speaking into the Air by : John Durham Peters
Download or read book Speaking into the Air written by John Durham Peters and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2012-04-26 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Communication plays a vital and unique role in society-often blamed for problems when it breaks down and at the same time heralded as a panacea for human relations. A sweeping history of communication, Speaking Into the Air illuminates our expectations of communication as both historically specific and a fundamental knot in Western thought. "This is a most interesting and thought-provoking book. . . . Peters maintains that communication is ultimately unthinkable apart from the task of establishing a kingdom in which people can live together peacefully. Given our condition as mortals, communication remains not primarily a problem of technology, but of power, ethics and art." —Antony Anderson, New Scientist "Guaranteed to alter your thinking about communication. . . . Original, erudite, and beautifully written, this book is a gem." —Kirkus Reviews "Peters writes to reclaim the notion of authenticity in a media-saturated world. It's this ultimate concern that renders his book a brave, colorful exploration of the hydra-headed problems presented by a rapid-fire popular culture." —Publishers Weekly What we have here is a failure-to-communicate book. Funny thing is, it communicates beautifully. . . . Speaking Into the Air delivers what superb serious books always do-hours of intellectual challenge as one absorbs the gradually unfolding vision of an erudite, creative author." —Carlin Romano, Philadelphia Inquirer
Book Synopsis Courting the Abyss by : John Durham Peters
Download or read book Courting the Abyss written by John Durham Peters and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2010-02-15 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Courting the Abyss updates the philosophy of free expression for a world that is very different from the one in which it originated. The notion that a free society should allow Klansmen, neo-Nazis, sundry extremists, and pornographers to spread their doctrines as freely as everyone else has come increasingly under fire. At the same time, in the wake of 9/11, the Right and the Left continue to wage war over the utility of an absolute vision of free speech in a time of increased national security. Courting the Abyss revisits the tangled history of free speech, finding resolutions to these debates hidden at the very roots of the liberal tradition. A mesmerizing account of the role of public communication in the Anglo-American world, Courting the Abyss shows that liberty's earliest advocates recognized its fraternal relationship with wickedness and evil. While we understand freedom of expression to mean "anything goes," John Durham Peters asks why its advocates so often celebrate a sojourn in hell and the overcoming of suffering. He directs us to such well-known sources as the prose and poetry of John Milton and the political and philosophical theory of John Locke, Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, and Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., as well as lesser-known sources such as the theology of Paul of Tarsus. In various ways they all, he shows, envisioned an attitude of self-mastery or self-transcendence as a response to the inevitable dangers of free speech, a troubled legacy that continues to inform ruling norms about knowledge, ethical responsibility, and democracy today. A world of gigabytes, undiminished religious passion, and relentless scientific discovery calls for a fresh account of liberty that recognizes its risk and its splendor. Instead of celebrating noxious doctrine as proof of society's robustness, Courting the Abyss invites us to rethink public communication today by looking more deeply into the unfathomable mystery of liberty and evil.
Book Synopsis The Theory of Clouds by : Stéphane Audeguy
Download or read book The Theory of Clouds written by Stéphane Audeguy and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2007 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The novel tells the story of Akira Kumo, a retired couturier living in Paris, owner of the world's largest collection of books about clouds, and Virginie Latour, whom Kumo hires to help catalogue his library. While they work he tells her the story behind three figures in particular, all British, all obsessed by clouds: Luke Howard, a real-life Quaker who in 1802 wrote the first treatise classifying clouds (we still use it today); a painter named Carmichael, clearly based on John Constable, one of the most famous cloud painters of all time, and a fictional amateur meteorologist named Richard Abercrombie, who aspires to write the definitive book on cloud description, which would come to be known in cloud circles as the Abercrombie Protocol. Kumo sends Virginie Latour to London to buy the Protocol. By the end of the novel, we learn the Protocol's great secret; we understand what binds these men together; and and we learn that Kumo himself is a survivor of the Hiroshima blast, in whose cloud his family vanished.
Book Synopsis Promiscuous Knowledge by : Kenneth Cmiel
Download or read book Promiscuous Knowledge written by Kenneth Cmiel and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2020-02-27 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “[A] lively account of the cultural and intellectual history of how Americans have lived with image and information since the mid-nineteenth century.” —Peter Simonson, author of Refiguring Mass Communication Sergey Brin, a cofounder of Google, once compared the perfect search engine to “the mind of God.” As the modern face of promiscuous knowledge, however, Google’s divine omniscience traffics in news, maps, weather, and porn indifferently. This book, begun by the late Kenneth Cmiel and completed by his close friend John Durham Peters, provides a genealogy of the information age from its early origins up to the reign of Google. It examines how we think about fact, image, and knowledge, centering on the different ways that claims of truth are complicated when they pass to a larger public. To explore these ideas, Cmiel and Peters focus on three main periods—the late nineteenth century, 1925 to 1945, and 1975 to 2000, with constant reference to the present. Cmiel’s original text examines the growing gulf between politics and aesthetics in postmodern architecture, the distancing of images from everyday life in magical realist cinema, the waning support for national betterment through taxation, and the inability of a single presentational strategy to contain the social whole. Peters brings Cmiel’s study into the present moment, providing the backstory to current controversies about the slipperiness of facts in a digital age. A hybrid work from two innovative thinkers, Promiscuous Knowledge enlightens our understanding of the internet and the profuse visual culture of our time. “With a clear voice and careful evidence, Promiscuous Knowledge offers fascinating glimpses into important people and practices from across the centuries.” —Fred Turner, author of From Counterculture to Cyberculture
Book Synopsis Clouds of Witness by : Dorothy L. Sayers
Download or read book Clouds of Witness written by Dorothy L. Sayers and published by Aegitas. This book was released on 2024-04-05 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers is the second novel in the acclaimed Lord Peter Wimsey mystery series. Published in 1926, this novel follows the amateur detective Lord Peter Wimsey as he investigates a murder that has taken place at his family's ancestral home. Set in the idyllic English countryside, this novel is a perfect blend of a classic whodunit mystery and a social commentary on the changing landscape of the British aristocracy. The story begins with Lord Peter's brother, the Duke of Denver, being accused of murdering his sister's fiancé, Captain Denis Cathcart. Despite the strong evidence against the Duke, Lord Peter is convinced of his brother's innocence and is determined to clear his name. The investigation takes Lord Peter and his faithful manservant Bunter to the family's estate, where they must navigate through a tangled web of family secrets, old grudges, and potential motives for the murder. One of the most striking aspects of Clouds of Witness is its vivid and richly detailed setting. Sayers expertly captures the beauty and tranquility of the English countryside, while also highlighting the stark contrast between the lavish lifestyle of the aristocracy and the struggles of the working class. Through her descriptions of the grand estate and its inhabitants, Sayers paints a picture of a society in transition, with the looming threat of the First World War and the changing values of the younger generation. The characters in this novel are also incredibly well-developed, each with their own distinct personalities and motivations. Lord Peter, with his sharp wit and deductive skills, is an endearing and charming protagonist, while his brother, the Duke, is portrayed as a troubled and emotionally distant character. The rest of the Wimsey family, as well as the various suspects and witnesses, are all well-crafted and add depth to the overall story. In addition to its well-crafted plot and characters, Clouds of Witness also delves into deeper themes such as loyalty, honor, and justice. As Lord Peter unravels the truth behind the murder, he is forced to confront his own beliefs and biases, and question the loyalty of those closest to him. Sayers also provides a scathing commentary on the shallow and superficial nature of the British aristocracy, and the ways in which their actions can have far-reaching consequences. Overall, Clouds of Witness is a masterfully written mystery novel that combines a gripping plot, well-developed characters, and thought-provoking themes. Sayers' writing is sharp, witty, and engaging, making this novel a must-read for fans of the genre and anyone interested in exploring the intricacies of British society in the early 20th century. It is a timeless classic that continues to captivate readers with its intricate plot twists, compelling characters, and beautiful prose.
Download or read book Privacy written by David Vincent and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2016-02-29 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Privacy: A Short History provides a vital historical account of an increasingly stressed sphere of human interaction. At a time when the death of privacy is widely proclaimed, distinguished historian, David Vincent, describes the evolution of the concept and practice of privacy from the Middle Ages to the present controversy over digital communication and state surveillance provoked by the revelations of Edward Snowden. Deploying a range of vivid primary material, he discusses the management of private information in the context of housing, outdoor spaces, religious observance, reading, diaries and autobiographies, correspondence, neighbours, gossip, surveillance, the public sphere and the state. Key developments, such as the nineteenth-century celebration of the enclosed and intimate middle-class household, are placed in the context of long-term development. The book surveys and challenges the main currents in the extensive secondary literature on the subject. It seeks to strike a new balance between the built environment and world beyond the threshold, between written and face-to-face communication, between anonymity and familiarity in towns and cities, between religion and secular meditation, between the state and the private sphere and, above all, between intimacy and individualism. Ranging from the fourteenth century to the twenty-first, this book shows that the history of privacy has been an arena of contested choices, and not simply a progression towards a settled ideal. Privacy: A Short History will be of interest to students and scholars of history, and all those interested in this topical subject.
Download or read book Giving Voice written by Meryl Alper and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2017-01-20 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How communication technologies meant to empower people with speech disorders—to give voice to the voiceless—are still subject to disempowering structural inequalities. Mobile technologies are often hailed as a way to “give voice to the voiceless.” Behind the praise, though, are beliefs about technology as a gateway to opportunity and voice as a metaphor for agency and self-representation. In Giving Voice, Meryl Alper explores these assumptions by looking closely at one such case—the use of the Apple iPad and mobile app Proloquo2Go, which converts icons and text into synthetic speech, by children with disabilities (including autism and cerebral palsy) and their families. She finds that despite claims to empowerment, the hardware and software are still subject to disempowering structural inequalities. Views of technology as a great equalizer, she illustrates, rarely account for all the ways that culture, law, policy, and even technology itself can reinforce disparity, particularly for those with disabilities. Alper explores, among other things, alternative understandings of voice, the surprising sociotechnical importance of the iPad case, and convergences and divergences in the lives of parents across class. She shows that working-class and low-income parents understand the app and other communication technologies differently from upper- and middle-class parents, and that the institutional ecosystem reflects a bias toward those more privileged. Handing someone a talking tablet computer does not in itself give that person a voice. Alper finds that the ability to mobilize social, economic, and cultural capital shapes the extent to which individuals can not only speak but be heard.
Book Synopsis Media Hot and Cold by : Nicole Starosielski
Download or read book Media Hot and Cold written by Nicole Starosielski and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2021-10-04 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Media Hot and Cold Nicole Starosielski examines the cultural dimensions of temperature to theorize the ways heat and cold can be used as a means of communication, subjugation, and control. Diving into the history of thermal media, from infrared cameras to thermostats to torture sweatboxes, Starosielski explores the many meanings and messages of temperature. During the twentieth century, heat and cold were broadcast through mass thermal media. Today, digital thermal media such as bodily air conditioners offer personalized forms of thermal communication and comfort. Although these new media promise to help mitigate the uneven effects of climate change, Starosielski shows how they can operate as a form of biopower by determining who has the ability to control their own thermal environment. In this way, thermal media can enact thermal violence in ways that reinforce racialized, colonial, gendered, and sexualized hierarchies. By outlining how the control of temperature reveals power relations, Starosielski offers a framework to better understand the dramatic transformations of hot and cold media in the twenty-first century.
Download or read book Beyond the Clouds 3 written by NICKE and published by Kodansha America LLC. This book was released on 2021-01-12 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thanks to the Sage’s medicine, Mia has recovered, but now she also knows she’s in danger of burning out her magic if she doesn’t learn how to control it. But where to find a wizard in this mundane world? Mia and Theo follow a legend to Karatope, the city of merchants, where every corner features something new, marvelous, or delicious—for a price! But what could a wizard be doing here? They hear of a fortune-teller and realize there’s no better vocation for someone with magical powers. Yet even after they spend hours in line, this seer refuses to see them! What does he know that he’s not sharing…?
Book Synopsis Extraordinary Clouds by : Richard Hamblyn
Download or read book Extraordinary Clouds written by Richard Hamblyn and published by David & Charles. This book was released on 2009-06-26 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A selection of some of the most startling and unusual cloud formations, from the uniform streaks of 'cloud streets' to the odd bulbous 'lenticularis' that are commonly mistaken for UFOs.|Discover the amazing and unexpected world of clouds with this inspiring collection of images. Clouds present us with an ongoing visual exhibition that transforms the sky into a constantly changing, mood-altering display of light, shade, volume and colour. Richard Hamblyn, acclaimed author, offers a selection of some of the most startling and unusual cloud formations, accompanied by Hamblyn's entertaining and informative explanation of how the cloud was formed and the conditions in which a similar one might occur. The images use satellite photography of clouds from above as well as ground-based pictures and the collection demonstrates the most unexpected and seemingly impossible patterns that can be created by the natural cycles of the weather. Extraordinary Clouds is divided into five distinct chapters: Clouds from the Air - Whether seen from a mountain summit, an airplane window or an orbiting satellite on the fringes of space, our atmosphere can exhibit some surprising characteristics when viewed from above. Vortex clouds, fallstreak holes, Jetstream cirrus, and cloud streets are just some of the cloud formations captured from the air in this chapter. Strange Shapes - Clouds come in a wide variety of distinctive shapes and some of them can be very strange indeed. From roll clouds and decaying altocumulus to swirling cirrocumulus and the odd bulbous lenticularis that are commonly mistaken for UFOs. Optical Effects - Clouds refract and diffract sunlight into vivid displays of colour and this section is devoted to the most beautiful of these cloud-induced light effects, from the pastel shades of iridescence and colourful rainbows to the bright flames of sun pillars and crepuscular rays. Theatrical Skies - Great atmospheric dramas are in continuous production all around the world: severe supercell thunderstorms, tornadic lightning strikes, violent dust storms, and a glorious fallstreak hole at sunset all feature in this striking chapter. Man-made Clouds - The impact of human activity has made its mark on every corner of our planet including the atmosphere, and throughout this chapter you will recognize a variety of these man-made clouds in the sky: fumulus clouds from industrial cooling towers, contrails from aircrafts, a noctilucent rocket trail, wing clouds, and pyrocumulus formed after man-made fires, or erupting volcanoes and forest fires. Produced in association with the Met Office - the world's premier weather forecasting bureau - who have written the Foreword for the book, Extraordinary Clouds celebrates the cloud formations and atmospheric phenomena that are completely our of the ordinary, from the merest wisp of a fleeting dust devil to the tops of thunderstorms visible from space.
Book Synopsis The Horse That Leaps Through Clouds by : Eric Enno Tamm
Download or read book The Horse That Leaps Through Clouds written by Eric Enno Tamm and published by Catapult. This book was released on 2012-04-17 with total page 523 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On July 6, 1906, Baron Gustaf Mannerheim boarded the midnight train from St. Petersburg, charged by Czar Nicholas II to secretly collect intelligence on the Qing Dynasty's sweeping reforms that were radically transforming China. The last czarist agent in the so–called Great Game, Mannerheim chronicled almost every facet of China's modernization, from education reform and foreign investment to Tibet's struggle for independence. On July 6, 2006, writer Eric Enno Tamm boards that same train, intent on following in Mannerheim's footsteps. Initially banned from China, Tamm devises a cover and retraces Mannerheim's route across the Silk Road, discovering both eerie similarities and seismic differences between the Middle Kingdoms of today and a century ago. Along the way, Tamm offers piercing insights into China's past that raise troubling questions about its future. Can the Communist Party truly open China to the outside world yet keep Western ideas such as democracy and freedom at bay, just as Qing officials mistakenly believed? What can reform during the late Qing Dynasty teach us about the spectacular transformation of China today? As Confucius once wrote, "Study the past if you would divine the future," and that is just what Tamm does in The Horse that Leaps Through Clouds.
Book Synopsis The Marvelous Adventures of Gwendolyn Gray by : B. A. Williamson
Download or read book The Marvelous Adventures of Gwendolyn Gray written by B. A. Williamson and published by North Star Editions, Inc.. This book was released on 2018-05-15 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Marvelous Adventures of Gwendolyn Gray is part fantasy, part dystopia, part steampunk, and all imagination as dreamer Gwendolyn evades thought police, enters a whimsical world, befriends world-jumping explorers and ragtag airship pirates, and fights the evil threatening to erase the new world she loves and her old world that never wanted her.
Book Synopsis A Prehistory of the Cloud by : Tung-Hui Hu
Download or read book A Prehistory of the Cloud written by Tung-Hui Hu and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2016-09-02 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The militarized legacy of the digital cloud: how the cloud grew out of older network technologies and politics. We may imagine the digital cloud as placeless, mute, ethereal, and unmediated. Yet the reality of the cloud is embodied in thousands of massive data centers, any one of which can use as much electricity as a midsized town. Even all these data centers are only one small part of the cloud. Behind that cloud-shaped icon on our screens is a whole universe of technologies and cultural norms, all working to keep us from noticing their existence. In this book, Tung-Hui Hu examines the gap between the real and the virtual in our understanding of the cloud. Hu shows that the cloud grew out of such older networks as railroad tracks, sewer lines, and television circuits. He describes key moments in the prehistory of the cloud, from the game “Spacewar” as exemplar of time-sharing computers to Cold War bunkers that were later reused as data centers. Countering the popular perception of a new “cloudlike” political power that is dispersed and immaterial, Hu argues that the cloud grafts digital technologies onto older ways of exerting power over a population. But because we invest the cloud with cultural fantasies about security and participation, we fail to recognize its militarized origins and ideology. Moving between the materiality of the technology itself and its cultural rhetoric, Hu's account offers a set of new tools for rethinking the contemporary digital environment.
Author :Russell Means Publisher :Createspace Independent Publishing Platform ISBN 13 :9781482068108 Total Pages :0 pages Book Rating :4.0/5 (681 download)
Book Synopsis If You've Forgotten the Names of the Clouds, You've Lost Your Way by : Russell Means
Download or read book If You've Forgotten the Names of the Clouds, You've Lost Your Way written by Russell Means and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2013-02-14 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book is an introduction - a very sketchy introduction - to Matriarchy. The Indian way of life is very misunderstood, and has almost disappeared from the Earth. This book is a partial collection of everything I've come to know from my people - from my ancestors, from people who were born free, from my relatives, and from my own experiences...as well as from other Indian Nations in the Western Hemisphere who all shared the same world view."-- Foreword.
