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"The invention of numerals is perhaps the greatest abstraction the human mind has ever created. Virtually everything in our lives is digital, numerical, or quantified. The story of how and where we got these numerals, which we so depend on, has for thousands of years been shrouded in mystery. Finding Zero is an adventure filled saga of Amir Aczel's lifelong obsession: to find the original sources of our numerals. Aczel has doggedly crisscrossed the...
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Brilliant, reminiscent of Lewis Hyde's The Gift in its reach and of Timothy Egan's The Worst Hard Time in its haunting evocation of human lives, offers a sweeping view of a surprisingly revealing aspect of human history-from the stone lamps of the Pleistocene to the LEDs embedded in fabrics of the future.
Brox plumbs the class implications of light-who had it, who didn't-through the many centuries when crude lamps and tallow candles constricted waking...
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Wales is a Celtic country and the Celts have always treasured oral learning and recitation. Indeed they have a passion for committing facts to memory rather than relying on the written word. So it is no surprise, as we can see from Anne Ross's study, that Welsh folklore and story-telling is so rich and varied. In addition to examining the part played by the medieval church in this oral tradition, individual chapters cover legends associated with place-names;...
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The history of public policy in postwar America tends to fixate on developments at the national level, overlooking the crucial work done by individual states in the 1960s and '70s. In this book, Nicholas Dagen Bloom demonstrates the significant and enduring impact of activist states in five areas: urban planning and redevelopment, mass transit and highways, higher education, subsidized housing, and the environment. Bloom centers his story on the example...
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An elegant, densely textured work, like a tapestry... A welcome contribution to polar studies.”[MacInness] handles the whole thing with masterly skill...takes us to the heart of the hope, love, anguish and grief' The men of Captain Scott's Polar Party were heroes of their age, enduring tremendous hardships to further the reputation of the Empire they served by reaching the South Pole. But they were also husbands, fathers, sons and brothers. For...
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Upon the road, Dick Turpin met Tom, the King of the road,
he took Gentleman Tom as a fat pigeon,
as highwaymen in Epping Forest they rode,
Tom taught the code of the highway to Turpin,
it was Tom King who made Dick Turpin a legend,
"Your money or your life" they told anyone unlucky enough to be their beholder,
Turpin's legend as told by a poet
Music and song Shadows of the Night by Suno Ai
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James Francis Cagney Jr., born in New York City, (July 17, 1899 - March 30, 1986) was an American actor and dancer. On stage and in film, he was known for his consistently energetic performances, distinctive vocal style, and deadpan comic timing. Cagney won the Academy Award in 1943 for his performance in Yankee Doodle Dandy. For his contributions to the film industry, Cagney was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 and received the American...
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By the end his military career, Major General Smedley D. Butler was the most decorated Marine in US history, having received two medals of honor. After his service, he became an outspoken critic of US wars and wrote a scathing book called, "War Is A Racket." The following audio clips include; In November 1934, Butler exposing an alleged fascist coup to remove President Franklin D Roosevelt from office and overthrow the U.S. government; A scathing...
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Carl Edward Sagan (November 9, 1934 - December 20, 1996), born in Brooklyn, NY, was an American astronomer and astrophysicist. His best-known scientific contribution was his research on the possibility of extraterrestrial life, including experimental demonstration of the production of amino acids from basic chemicals by exposure to light. He assembled the first physical messages sent into space, the Pioneer plaque and the Voyager Golden Record, which...
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Leander T. "Lee" Herron (December 29, 1846 - April 5, 1937) was a Corporal in the United States Army who, on September 2, 1868, while detailed as mail courier from Fort Larned to Fort Dodge in Kansas, voluntarily went to the assistance of a party of 4 enlisted men who had been attacked by 50 Indians, and remained with them until the party was relieved. Fifty-one years after his heroic actions, Herron received the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest...
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Barbara Stanwyck, born Ruby Catherine Stevens (July 16, 1907 - January 20, 1990), was an American actress, model and dancer. During her 60-year professional career, Stanwyck was known for her strong, realistic screen presence and versatility. She was nominated four times for a Best Actress Academy Award, received an Honorary Oscar in 1982, and the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1986. This recording includes a 1989 interview, followed by a...
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These audio recordings include a 1977 interview with 108 year old Florence Pannel, born in 1868, discussing living and working in Paris and Victorian England; a 1970 interview with Frances 'Effy' Jones recalling being one of the first women trained to use a typewriter, and life as a young woman in 1890s London; Berta Ruck, a romantic novelist, remembering her formative years at art school, and the culture shock she experienced after moving from her...
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Granddaughter of renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright, Anne Baxter, born in Michigan City, IN, (May 7, 1923 - December 12, 1985) was a star of Hollywood films, Broadway productions, and television series. She won a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award and a Golden Globe in 1947 for The Razor's Edge, was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar in 1951 for All About Eve, and received an Emmy nomination in 1969. The following is from an interview in 1985....
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Marilyn Monroe, born Norma Jeane Mortenson (June 1, 1926 - August 4, 1962) was an American actress and model. Known for playing comic "blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 60s, as well as an emblem of the era's sexual revolution. She was a top-billed actress for a decade, and her films grossed $200 million (equivalent to $2 billion in 2022) by the time of her death in 1962. Long after...
16) City of Dignity
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ity of Dignity illuminates how liberal Protestants quietly, yet indelibly, shaped the progressive ethics of postwar Los Angeles.
Contemporary Los Angeles is commonly seen as an American bulwark of progressive secular politics, a place that values immigration, equity, diversity, and human rights. But what accounts for the city's embrace of such staunchly liberal values, which are more hotly contested in other parts of the country? The answer, Sean...
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Ge, formerly translated as "mask" or "masquerade," appears among the Dan people of Cte d'Ivoire as a dancing and musical embodiment of their social ideals and religious beliefs. In Dan Ge Performance, Daniel B. Reed sets out to discover what resides at the core of Ge. He finds that Ge is defined as part of a religious system, a form of entertainment, an industry, a political tool, an instrument of justice, and a form of resistance-and it can take...
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Nestled in the heart of Central Asia, Afghanistan is a land where the winds carry the whispers of ancient tales and the echoes of enduring poetic traditions. This book embarks on a captivating exploration of the rich history of Afghan poetry, unearthing the cultural, social, and political landscapes that have shaped this poetic tapestry. Through five distinct chapters, we will traverse the epochs, from the early oral traditions to the contemporary...
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