The Two Sources of Indian Asceticism
Extraits
Histoire et Philosophiesophie
THE WOMAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH. Alice Stewart and the secrets of radiation
THE WOMAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH tells the engaging life story of the epidemiologist whose discoveries about radiation risk have revolutionized medical practice and challenged international nuclear safety standards. For more than forty years, Dr. Alice Stewart has warned that tow-dose radiation is far more dangerous than has been acknowledged. Although an outstanding scientist with more than 400 peer-reviewed papers to her name, her controversial work has only recently begun to receive significant attention, because it lies at the center of a political storm.
In the 1950s when doctors would routinely x-ray pregnant women, she began research at Oxford that led to the discovery that fetal x-rays doubted a child's risk of developing cancer. When she was in her seventies, she again astounded the scientific world by showing that the U.S. nuclear weapons industry was far more dangerous than commonly believed, a finding that embroiled her in an international controversy over radiation risk. In recent years, she has become one of a handful of independent scientists whose work is a lodestone to the antinuclear movement. In 1990, the New York Times called her "perhaps the Energy Department's most influential and feared scientific critic."
The Woman Who Knew Too Much traces Dr. Stewart's life and career from her early childhood in Sheffield and medical education at Cambridge to her research positions at Oxford and the University of Birmingham, where she still maintains an office. The book joins a growing number of biographies of pioneering women scientists such as Barbara McClintock, Rosalind Franklin, and Lise Meitner and will find a wide range of appreciative readers, including those interested in the history of science and technology and of the history of women in science and medicine. Activists and policymakers will also find the story of Alice Stewart compelling reading.
02/2000
Histoire et Philosophiesophie
Charles Darwin's Zoology Notes & Specimen Lists from H.M.S. Beagle
Two long sets of scientific notes were made by Charles Darwin during the voyage of the Beagle. Those transcribed here are concerned with natural history, and although in 1839 he drew on them quite extensively in writing his famous " Journal of Researches ", neither they nor his geology notes have previously been published. He was a superb observer, and recorded vividly and accurately his first impressions of the appearance and behaviour of the wide range of animals, from ants to ostriches, encountered during his travels. Often he performed little experiments on the creatures that he captured, and he was never happy until he had exhaustively explored the why and wherefore of every one of his observations. During the long periods on board ship, he carried out a thorough analysis of hitherto unrecognised features of the internal anatomy of a variety of marine invertebrates, and made elegant pencil drawings of them under his dissecting microscope. The volume also includes his lists of 1 500 specimens preserved in Spirits of Wine, and some 3 500 not in Spirits, with impeccably accurate cross references to the main notes. Although his notes were made strictly for his own use, and were often highly technical, they were well written throughout, and contain many highly readable passages. Only towards the very end of the voyage were his first doubts about the immutability of species consciously pressed, but here are to be found the first seeds of his theory of evolution, and of the important new fields of behavioural and ecological study of which he was one of the principal founders.
01/2000
Animaux, nature
Carnet Animal aquatique - Aigrette garze. Edition bilingue français-anglais
Ardea orientalis : L'aigrette garzette est un oiseau parfois migrateur que l'on rencontre en Europe du Sud, sur tout le pourtour méditerranéen, en Afrique, ainsi que dans tout le sud-est asiatique. Vivant en colonie, l'aigrette habite aussi bien les zones humides côtières aux eaux peu profondes, avec une prédilection pour les eaux saumâtres, que les lacs, les cours d'eau ou les marais. Blanche avec un bec noir légèrement gris bleuté, elle porte sur la nuque deux longues plumes fines - les "aigrettes" - en période nuptiale. Ardea orientalis : The Little Egret is a sometimes migratory bird found in Southern Europe, all around the Mediterranean rim, in Africa, as well as in all of Southeast Asia. Living in colonies, the egret inhabits coastal wetlands with shallow water, with a preference for brackish water, such as lakes, streams or marshes. White with a black slightly bluish grey beak, on its nape it has two long thin feathers - the "egrets" - during the breeding season". Le général Thomas Hardwicke (1756-1835) est un soldat et naturaliste anglais affecté en Inde entre 1777 et 1823. Il se consacre sur place à la recherche de spécimens d'espèces locales encore inconnues en Europe, qui seront ensuite dessinés par des artistes indiens. A son retour en Angleterre, Hardwicke avait rassemblé 4 500 illustrations, dont 202 qui seront sélectionnées par lui-même et son collaborateur J. E. Gray pour être publiées sous le titre Illustrations of Indian Zoology. Le livre a été publié entre 1830 et 1835 et ne contient que des illustrations, Hardwicke étant décédé avant la production de la partie textuelle. Major-General Thomas Hardwicke (1756-1835) was an English soldier and naturalist who was poste in India from 1777 to 1823. Aside from his military activities, he devoted himself to looking for specimens of local species which he afterwards asked Indian artists to draw and from which many were unknown until then. When he returned to England, Hardwicke had gathered 4, 500 illustrations, from which 202 were chosen by him and his collaborator J. E. Gray to be published under the title Illustrations of Indian Zoology. The book was published between 1830 and 1835 and contains only illustrations, Hardwicke having died before the textual part was produced. ?
11/2019
Non classé
Papers on Semantics and Grammar
The six revised papers collected here - two have been translated into English - address in their different ways questions relating to grammatical meaning (both semantics and pragmatics) and the analysis of constructions. Though they cover a period of about 10 years, they can be said to share a view of linguistic analysis that is holistic rather than modular and descriptive rather than generative. The topics discussed are : the semantics and pragmatics of get-passives ; the semantics of epistemic modality ; the status, function and analysis of participial and gerundial -ing constructions ; four controversies in the analysis of modality and modal auxiliaries ; the functional classification of adverbials and the pragmatics of their position ; the semantics and pragmatics of prepositional phrases with for.
01/1993
Sciences politiques
The Structure of Political Communication in the United Kingdom, the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany
Political Communication in The United Kingdom, the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany differs in terms of what the peoples expect to take issue with, how they are prepared to talk about them, which choices they can make to solve problems and, finally, whom or which organizations they delegate to resolve them. This comparative media study of The Economist, Time and Der Spiegel attempts to extract the differences in politics of the three societies.
11/1987
Religion
Revelation and Theology
This book examines the theological epistemologies of two of this century's most prominent theologians, Hans Urs von Balthasar and Karl Barth. Both theologians responded to modernist theologies by drawing from the best of their own traditions. Both tried to reinstate theology as a true science which takes its object, namely, the revelation of God in Jesus Christ, seriously. They therefore make excellent conversation partners. This book closely traces their arguments as they seek to formulate their understanding of theological knowledge and theological science from a christological and trinitarian perspective, based on the concrete self-disclosure of God in Jesus Christ.
11/1999
Mouvements artistiques
The Artist Helen Coombe (1864–1937). The Tragedy of Roger Fry's Wife
This fascinating book presents the ? rst biography of Helen Coombe, a woman admired not only for her artistic skill, but also for her intellect, personality and wit. It reveals her family background and education, her place in the Arts and Crafts Movement and her outstanding artistic output. Helen Coombe was married to Roger Fry, an artist who was to achieve most fame as an art critic, historian and protagonist of the Bloomsbury Group. Soon after their marriage in 1896, she displayed symptoms of schizophrenia. After the ? rst episode, she temporarily resumed her career and had two children with Fry, but for the last thirty years of her life she was sectioned under the Lunacy Act and committed to an institution. This thoroughly researched book makes full use of archival material, including correspondence, diaries and medical records. It illuminates late Victorian and Edwardian society and culture. It throws new light, by no means all of it favourable, on Roger Fry. It is a 'must' for all interested in the Bloomsbury Group, art history, and the handling of mental illness at a time before ef ? cacious antipsychotic drugs were available.
11/2023
Beaux arts
New worlds
"New Worlds" presents a selection of five outstanding nautical atlases known as portolan charts, or "portalans".These historic documents are the work of eminent scholars from Majorca, Lisbon, Le Havre, and Amsterdam. Cartographers by trade, and sometimes also skilled illuminators, they mapped what was the most probable imago mundi for their time, each exemplar crafting a fascinating visual chronicle. Jean-Yves Sarazin, head of Charts and Maps at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, scrutinizes thèse charts or atlases, and situates them in the great history of European discoveries and voyages from the early 14th to the late 17th century, from the Portuguese reconnaissance of the coasts of Africa, through the adventures of Columbus,Vespucci, and Magellan, to the Dutch voyages in the Pacific and Australia.The book's many colour reproductions are alive with picturesque details: camel caravans in the heart ofAsia, Portuguese andArab ships sailing in the Indian Ocean, wild beasts or chimaera, countless exotic plants, naval battles, and not least the frequent strangeness of the indigenous people.
10/2012
Non classé
Covenant and Liberation
This book springs from the practical interaction of two absorbing interests : in covenant, thanks to many years of lecturing on the Scriptures, in which covenants provide a sure road from start to finish of the Bible ; and in liberation, an interest sharpened by more than a decade of working in a Lima parish with people struggling desperately to break free from the cycle of poverty, oppression and premature death. Theirs is part of the struggle for liberation throughout Latin America and many other parts of our global home. Reflecting with the poor on their situation in the light of the Scriptures has led to a fuller realization that covenant and liberation are two sides of the same coin - liberation is for covenant, and covenant is to consolidate and promote freedom as befits God's family. First comes a synthesis of the biblical covenants, indicating their continuity but also the unique characteristics of each one. Special attention is paid to the new covenant, often reflected in terms of kingdom, community, family and mutual love. Then it is indicated how new light may be drawn from such a central biblical theme in order to view correctly and share personally in today's liberation struggles.
01/1991
Roman d'amour, roman sentiment
Don’t leave me
Jordan and Florence had made a promise never to part with each other, having managed to heal their past pains. Unfortunately, one day she will return to France, leaving Jordan, alone, in Boston. Their love, their carnal complicity in which they always found refuge and had fun in unusual places, cannot be ended on a whim. The death of a child, of a parent, suicide, disability, so many trials that will test their love, so that they admit they are nothing without the other. Will they succeed, knowing that when one is loved, one strength is increased tenfold when one encounters an obstacle ? Besides, distance is nothing when two people love each other so passionately, destiny is supposed to bring those who love each other together.
07/2022
Physique, chimie
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF POLYMERS. 2nd edition
The widespread use of the first edition of Physical Properties of Polymers as a textbook encouraged the authors to expand and update this introduction to polymer science. All of the original topics have been enriched with the latest developments in these fast-moving areas. Two new topics have been added to provide comprehensive treatment. The contents have been divided into sections on physical states of polymers and characterization techniques. Chapters on physical states include discussions of the rubber elastic state, the glassy state, melts and concentrated solutions, the crystalline state, and the mesomorphic state. Characterization techniques described are molecular spectroscopy and scattering techniques. In addition to academic use, this volume offers a well-rounded source of basic information needed by polymer physical chemists, polymer physicists, polymer engineers, and all scientists whose work involves polymers.
11/1999
Littérature française
Carnet de notes Canard à bec tâcheté
Anas poecilorhyncha : Le canard à bec tacheté est un oiseau d'eau douce qui vit au Pakistan et en Inde. Il habite de préférence dans des zones humides de taille moyenne, lacs ou marécages, abrités sous la végétation. Certains individus ont des comportements migratoires. De la taille d'un colvert, ce canard se distingue par son miroir (bande spéculaire sur les ailes) vert bordé de blanc, ainsi que son bec noir à la pointe jaune et aux taches rouge-orangé. Anas poecilorhyncha : The Indian spot-billed duck is a freshwater bird that lives in Pakistan and India. It preferably inhabits medium-sized wetlands, lakes or swamps, sheltered under the vegetation. Some individuals are migratory. The size of a mallard, the duck recognizable for its green and white-trimmed speculum (speckled band on the wings), as well as its black beak with yellow tip and red-orange spots. Le général Thomas Hardwicke (1756-1835) est un soldat et naturaliste anglais affecté en Inde entre 1777 et 1823. Il se consacre sur place à la recherche de spécimens d'espèces locales encore inconnues en Europe, qui seront ensuite dessinés par des artistes indiens. A son retour en Angleterre, Hardwicke avait rassemblé 4 500 illustrations, dont 202 qui seront sélectionnées par lui-même et son collaborateur J. E. Gray pour être publiées sous le titre Illustrations of Indian Zoology. Le livre a été publié entre 1830 et 1835 et ne contient que des illustrations, Hardwicke étant décédé avant la production de la partie textuelle. Major-General Thomas Hardwicke (1756-1835) was an English soldier and naturalist who was poste in India from 1777 to 1823. Aside from his military activities, he devoted himself to looking for specimens of local species which he afterwards asked Indian artists to draw and from which many were unknown until then. When he returned to England, Hardwicke had gathered 4, 500 illustrations, from which 202 were chosen by him and his collaborator J. E. Gray to be published under the title Illustrations of Indian Zoology. The book was published between 1830 and 1835 and contains only illustrations, Hardwicke having died before the textual part was produced. ?
11/2019
Militaire
GOLD, Objectif Bayeux
On the night of the 31st of December 1943, two British commandos successfully collected a few samples of sand and peat under the very nose of the Germans posted at Ver-sur-Mer. Five months later, some 25, 000 men followed in their footsteps and landed on the same shores, codenamed Gold Beach. Barely had they landed, the British troops set out to building an artificial harbour, undoubtedly one of the finest technical feats of the Second World War. It was to prove a major asset for securing Allied supremacy in the months that followed the D-Day Landings.
03/2023
Littérature française
Poet Nightingale Bharathiyar, life story of Bharathiyar
Poet Nightingale Bharathiyar Subramaniya Bharathiyar was born on 11th December 1882 in Ettayapuram, which is now part of Thoothukudi District. He died on 11th September 1921. Bharathiar was educated at a local high school where his talents as a poet were recognized even at the age of 11. He had a voracious appetite for learning ancient and contemporary Tamil literature and had a gifted intellect to derive astonishing truths from ancient poems. He was also one of the prominent leaders of the Indian independence movement. His national integration songs earned him the title "Desiya Kavi" (National Poet). His patriotic songs emphasize nationalism, unity of India, equality of men and the greatness of the Tamil language. It is a real and great pleasure for me to present this nice treatise on Poet Nightingale Bharathiyar to you. Thank you, Dr. Shuddhananda Bharati for having transmitted Poet Nightingale Bharathiyar to us. The first edition of this book is dated 1955 in Tamil. Editions ASSA, Christian Piaget
03/2009
Non classé
From Scarcity to Sustainability
For futures studies and environmentalism the late 1960s and early 1970s were a heyday period of great publicity, and much scientific interest was devoted to them. The study 'Limits to Growth', commissioned by the Club of Rome, has played an important role for the further advancement of these fascinating fields. Each of them in its own way deals with the long term prospects of humankind and desirable future paths of humanity and the globe. This investigation illustrates a very important phase in the development of these two areas and writes a history of ideas and a history of impact of the Limits to Growth debate and other activities of the Club of Rome. It includes information that has so far only been known to a very limited number of directly involved individuals and looks into very recent stages of the sustainable development debate and newest developments of more pragmatic and critical futures studies. For the purpose of this study some 100 interviews have been made worldwide with very well known and often influential individuals. Among them are : Sicco Mansholt, Alexander King, Jan Tinbergen, Robert Jungk, Saburo Okita, Lord Kennet, Johan Galtung, Barry Commoner and Philip de Seynes.
12/1991
Non classé
Portraits of Women in Selected Works of Gabriele Reuter
Known primarily for the novel, Aus guter Familie, Gabriele Reuter has not yet been accorded the attention she deserves for her contribution to German literature in general and women's writing in particular. The precisely observed portraits of women in the novels discussed in this volume allow us to experience the complex interplay of societal norms and individual needs which shape feminine existence. Among the themes treated are misguided motherhood, the virtue of the unwed mother, the conflict between the will to be and the need to love and be loved, woman's role in the political sphere and a comparison of womanhood in two generations. One of the enduring pleasures of reading Reuter is the rich variety of female characters from the early part of the twentieth century.
12/1987
12 ans et +
Kill the indian in the child
Comme tous les jeunes Indiens, Mukwa, 11 ans, est envoyé à Sainte-Cécilia, un pensionnat canadien dont l'éducation est confiée à des religieux. Malheureusement, cet établissement ne ressemble en rien à une école traditionnelle. Pour tout apprentissage, le jeune Ojibwé découvre l'humiliation, la privation de nourriture, les mauvais traitements... Car le mot d'ordre est Kill the Indian in the child : éliminer l'Indien dans l'enfant, lui faire oublier sa culture, sa religion, ses origines. Mais Mukwa se rebelle, décide de fuir et de rejoindre son père trappeur, dans la forêt...
09/2017
Religion
The Second Story of Creation (Gen 2:4-3:24)
The two creation stories in Genesis 1-3 have been subject of intense study since the beginning of critical research on the Pentateuch in the eighteenth century. Even today, they continue to vex the biblical commentators. This work attempts to study one of these creation stories, namely the Eden Story narrated in Gen 2 : 4-3 : 24. This story graphically describes the first couple's installation in the Garden of Eden and their expulsion from it. These two themes have prompted some scholars to consider this story as a summary of Israel's history until the tragedy of exile and a prologue to the literary composition commonly called Enneateuch (Genesis - 2 Kings). Such a hypothesis is based on the premise that both Eden story and Israel's history have the same end : expulsion. The reason for such an end in both is disobedience. The study takes up this hypothesis and examines its viability. Furthermore, this work attempts to bring out the biblical message of this story. Gen 2-3 is an expression of Israel's faith resulting from its history with Yahweh and from its encounter with the surrounding cultures, and it intends to articulate a religious and anthropological identity for Israel.
11/2010
Religion
Metaphor and God-talk
This volume contains a selection of the papers originally delivered at the 25th LAUD-symposium on 'Metaphor and Religion'. The essays in this volume analyse the metaphorical nature of religious language from a variety of perspectives. The concept of metaphor has been developed by the sustained attention of theologians, philosophers, linguists and literary theorists for more than two millennia. The last twenty years have witnessed a renewed and intensified interest in this powerful dynamism of thought. The present contributions offer a survey of the most adhered-to theories of metaphor. They elaborate on their significance for religious language : next to analogy as a philosophical and theological tool, interactionist, pragmatist and cognitivist theories are used to shed light on the peculiarity of human efforts to talk and think about the transcendent.
11/1999
Mexique
Secret Mexico City
An indispensable guide for those who thought they knew the city well or who would like to discover its many other facets. The forgotten café where Fidel Castro and Che Guevara used to meet, a tribute to the city's ghosts, a mammoth in the metro, a cave transformed into a shrine, an underground parking lot with mosaics dating from 1930, a Baroque altarpiece made from papier mâché, a village based on the principles of Thomas More's Utopia, secret masterpieces of colonial art in rooms only open around two hours a week, the largest roof garden in Latin America, the photo on which the Oscar statuette is modelled, the first building in the world faced with a material that can trap urban smog, a road surface designed for praying as you walk ...
02/2024
Philosophie
Interpreting Quebec’s Exile Within the Federation. Selected Political Essays
This book combines the approaches of political theory and of intellectual history to provide a lucid account of Québec's contemporary situation within the Canadian federation. Guy Laforest considers that the province of Québec, and its inhabitants, are exiled within Canada. They are not fully integrated, politically and constitutionally, nor are they leaving the federation, for now and for the foreseeable future. They are in between these two predicaments. Laforest provides insights into the current workings of the Canadian federation, and some of its key figures of the past fifty years, such as Pierre Elliott Trudeau, René Lévesque, Stephen Harper and Claude Ryan. The book also offers thought-provoking studies of thinkers and intellectuals such as James Tully, Michel Seymour and André Burelle. Laforest revisits some key historical documents and events, such as the Durham Report and the 1867 and 1982 constitutional documents. He offers political and constitutional proposals that could contribute to help Québec moving beyond the current predicament of internal exile.
12/1986
Anglais apprentissage
LA VIERGE ET LE GITAN : THE VIRGIN AND THE GIPSY
When the vicar's wife went off with a young and penniless man the scandal knew no bounds. Her two little girls were only seven and nine years old respectively. And the vicar was such a good husband. True, his hair was grey. But his moustache was dark, he was handsome, and still full of furtive passion for his unrestrained and beautiful wife. Why did she go ? Why did she burst away with such an éclat of revulsion, like a touch of madness ? Nobody gave any answer. Only the pious said she was a bad woman. While some of the good women kept silent. They knew. The two little girls never knew. Wounded, they decided that it was because their mother found them negligible. The ill wind that blows nobody any good swept away the vicarage family on its blast. Then lo and behold ! the vicar, who was somewhat distinguished as an essayist and a controversialist, and whose case had aroused sympathy among the bookish men, received the living of Papplewick. The Lord had tempered the wind of misfortune with a rectorate in the north country. [...] "Lorsque la femme du pasteur s'enfuit avec un jeune homme sans le sou, le scandale ne connut pas de bornes. Ses deux fillettes n'avaient que sept et neuf ans respectivement. Et le pasteur était un si bon mari. Certes, il avait les cheveux gris, mais sa moustache était restée noire, il était bel homme et brûlait encore d'une passion furtive pour sa belle épouse immodeste. Pourquoi était-elle partie ? Pourquoi s'était-elle arrachée à lui, dans un tel éclat de dégoût, comme un grain de folie ? Personne n'apporta de réponse. Seules, les dévotes dirent que c'était une mauvaise femme. Cependant que certaines femmes de bien gardaient le silence. Elles comprenaient, elles. Les deux fillettes ne comprirent jamais. Blessées, elles jugèrent que c'était parce que leur mère les tenait pour quantité négligeable. Le vent du malheur qui est censé être bon à quelque chose balaya de son souffle les habitants de la cure. Puis, miracle, le pasteur, qui avait une certaine éminence comme essayiste et polémiste, et dont la situation avait su émouvoir certains intellectuels, fut nommé à la paroisse de Papplewick. Le Seigneur avait adouci l'ouragan du malheur par un bénéfice de recteur dans le nord du pays. " [...]
02/1993
Non classé
Philip Freneau- Tomo Cheeki, the Creek Indian in Philadelphia
Philip Freneau (1752-1832) was one of the first Americans to gain wide recognition as a writer. He is generally remembered as the "father of American poetry," but his prose writings have not always received the attention they deserve. As the editor of three important papers in the late 18th century (The National Gazette. The Jersey Chronicle, and The Time-Piece and Literary Companion) and as a contributor to many others, Freneau produced a large number of political and literary essays. The "Tomo Cheeki Essays", which were published in 1795 and in 1797, constitute an excellent example of Freneau's prose work. These pseudo-autobiographical accounts of an Indian visiting a city of the Whites are based upon the model of the European "oriental tale," while simultaneously incorporating American subject matter. The essays are representative of a decisive period of American literary history, since they reveal both Freneau's indebtedness to European culture and his role in the process of overcoming this indebtedness in the beginning creation of an independent national literature. The present edition provides the first complete and separate modern collection of the essays, which gives the reader an opportunity to get acquainted with an important example of early American prose writing that has been virtually inaccessible up to now.
12/1987
BD tout public
SPAWN : ABDUCTION
In this eviscerating eigth volume of Tood McFarlane's Spawn saga, the most mecany hero of all finds himself caputred, on the operating table and under the knife... without anaesthetic !
Ever wondered what makes a Spawn tick, what fuels and sustains its necroplasmic body ? The curse has, ans he's about to conduct a little exploratory surgery to satisfy his curiosity. As for Spawn, he's about to have the limits of his powers ans his sanity stretched as never before. And his time, he may have gone too fare out on o limb.
Plus, more mad science in the shape of Cy-Gor and the Freak, two all-new nemeses for Spawn.
03/1999
Non classé
Focusing in English and Korean
English and Korean have various ways of expressing grammatical prominence. While focusing in English has been studied over the past twenty years by a number of generative and functional grammarians, there is as yet no comprehensive treatment of focus phenomena in Korean. This monograph treats five focusing constructions of English and looks at their grammatical and lexical equivalents in Korean. English and Korean are different typologically. Since this difference is important, if one wishes to make sense of the diverging focusing strategies in these two languages, it is necessary to give a typological outline of English and Korean. The follwing two typological approaches figure prominently in this monograph : the basic word order typology developed by Greenberg, and the language typology proposed by Li and Thompson.
10/1991
Monographies
Hilma af Klint. The Five Notebook 1
In 1896, Hilma af Klint and four other like-minded women artists left the Edelweiss Society and founded the "Friday Group", also known as "The Five". They met every Friday for spiritual meetings, including prayers, studies of the New Testament, meditation and séances. The medium exercised automatic writing and mediumistic drawing. Eventually they established contact with spiritual beings whom they called "The High Ones". In 1896, the five women began taking meticulous notes of the mediumistic messages conveyed by the spirits. In time, Hilma af Klint felt she had been selected for more important messages. After ten years of esoteric training with "The Five", aged 43, Hilma af Klint accepted a major assignment, the execution of The Paintings for the Temple. This commission, which engaged the artist from 1906 to 1915, changed the course of her life. In 1908, Rudolf Steiner, leader of the German Theosophical Society, held several lectures in Stockholm. He also visited af Klint's studio and saw some of the early Paintings for the Temple. In 1913, Steiner founded the Anthroposophical Society, which af Klint joined in 1920 and remained a member for the rest of her life.
01/2022
Histoire et Philosophiesophie
The Undergrowth of Science. Delusion, self-deception and human frailty
Walter Gratzer's themes in the stories he relates in The Undergrowth of Science are collective delusion and human folly. Science is generally seen as a process bound by rigorous rules, which its practitioners must not transgress. Deliberate fraud occasionally intrudes, but it is soon detected, the perpetrators cast out and the course of discovery barely disturbed. Far more interesting are the outbreaks of self-delusion that from time to time afflict upright and competent researchers, and then spread like an epidemic or mass-hysteria through a sober and respectable scientific community. When this happens the rules by which scientists normally govern their working lives are suddenly suspended. Sometimes these episodes are provoked by personal vanity, an unwillingness to acknowledge error or even contemplate the possibility that a hard-won success is a will o' the wisp; at other times they stem from loyalty to a respected and trusted guru, or even from patriotic pride; and, worst of ail, they may be a consequence of a political ideology which imposes its own interpretation on scientists' observations of the natural world. Unreason and credulity supervene, illusory phenomena are described and measured, and theories are developed to explain them - until suddenly, often for no single reason, the bubble bursts, leaving behind it a residue of acrimony, recrimination, embarrassment and ruined reputations.
Here, then, are radiations, measured with high precision yet existing only in the minds of those who observed them; the Russian water, which some thought might congeal the oceans: phantom diseases which called for heroic surgery; monkey testis implants that restored the sexual powers of ageing roués and of tired sheep; truths about genetics and about the nature of matter, perceptible only to Aryan scientists in the Third Reich or Marxist ideologues in the Soviet Union; and much more. The Undergrowth of Science explores, in terms accessible to the lay reader, the history of such episodes, up to our own time, in ail their absurdity, tragedy and pathos.
01/2000
Autres langues
Chinese Breeze : Our Geese Have Gone (Niveau 2 - 500 mots). Edition en anglais-chinois, 2nd edition
Twenty-five years ago, people in my village did not know that wild geese should be protected from hunting. My grandfather was the best of the hunters, selling the geese in town to pay for my schooling. One day, as he hunted, an eagle attacked the flock of geese, injuring the lead goose. My grandfather drove the eagle off and brought the lead goose home to tend to its wounds. Soon, the goose's mate joined it, and my grandfather, hunter of wild geese, found himself with two new companions...
01/2018
Beaux arts
Autodidacts. From Van Gogh to Pirosmani, 1e édition
The symposium will focus on two examples of autodidacts from the nineteenth century, Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) and Niko Pirosmani (1862-1918), as well as on the issues surrounding this notion today. The model of the autodidact appears as a figure that sheds light on our value systems and our patterns of recognition and learning in a world where different conceptions of culture coexist. Over two days, art historians, critics, writers, artists and teachers will gather to discuss autodidacticism through multiple perspectives. The term "autodidact" is generally used to describe someone who has acquired knowledge or skills through their own reading, observations and practice - an approach that is radically different from academic study in the arts, for example, that is validated by institutions. Yet what can we possibly learn if we sacrifice brilliant cultural values on the altar of all- round relativism, where everything is equally valid ? Faced with this relativism, what does one make of the canonical in a globalised and fragmented world ? What to make of an unlearning that cripples the authority of the keepers of knowledge ? These different "cultures of knowledge" presuppose diverse geopolitical realities that are worth interrogating.
01/2021
Littérature française
The Shipping Agent has Disappeared
Mrs. Lemardeley, an elderly lady living in Granville, is attacked one night in July. Customs officer Weber, asked by the local police to investigate, suspects that burglary was the real motive. Except nothing is missing. When Mrs. Lemardeley's two children are also both victims of the same man, Weber starts to look into the family's colonial past. Who is the attacker and what is his interest in the family ? As the criminal manages to repeatedly evade capture, Weber follows a trail of clues which eventually lead him to discover the truth. But can he find his man before it's too late ?
09/2010
Top Articles
Les ventes du livre de Meurice tombées dans l'oreille d'un Praud (assez anti...) “Désarroi et colère” : France Inter supprime La Librairie francophone En librairie : “Ne plus rien prendre pour faire vivoter les livres déjà là” La Librairie Francophone, c'est fini : "On est complètement sonné"
