The History of Central Asia: 4-Volume Set by Christoph Baumer
English | April 18, 2018 | ISBN: 1788313518 | True EPUB | 840 pages | 241 MB
The epic plains and arid deserts of Central Asia have witnessed some of the greatest migrations, as well as many of the most transformative developments, in the history of civilization. Christoph Baumer's ambitious four-volume treatment of the region charts the 3000-year drama of Scythians and Sarmatians; Soviets and transcontinental Silk Roads; trade routes and the transmission of ideas across the steppes; and the breathless and brutal conquests of Alexander the Great and Chinghiz Khan. Masterfully interweaving the stories of individuals and peoples, the author's engaging prose is richly augmented throughout by colour photographs taken on his own travels.

The Great Barrier Reef: The History of the World's Largest Coral Reef by Charles River Editors
English | March 3, 2015 | ISBN: 1508676747 | 63 pages | EPUB | 2.46 Mb
*Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the reef and animals written by explorers *Includes a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents "Coral is a very beautiful and unusual animal. Each coral head consists of thousand of individual polyps. These polyps are continually budding and branching into genetically identical neighbors." - Antony Garrett List People have always loved to build things, whether it's a feat of engineering in an underground subway or the construction of the world's tallest skyscraper. Thus, it's somewhat ironic that the largest structure ever built was not made by humans but by incredibly tiny organisms known as coral polyps. Over the course of tens of thousands of years, these small organisms have put together a collection of nearly 3,000 reefs that form a collective stretching across 130,000 square miles. It is often mistakenly claimed that the Great Wall of China can be seen in space, but it's absolutely true that the enormous Great Barrier Reef is visible. The sheer size of the Great Barrier Reef is mind-boggling, but its importance extends far past its physical extent. Put simply, the Great Barrier Reef is one of the most beautiful spots on the planet, offering kaleidoscopic colors thanks to the coral and the species that call it home. This is understandable because a staggering number of species inhabit the Great Barrier Reef, ranging from starfish and turtles to alligators and birds. Scientists have counted about 1,500 different fish species using the reef, and it's estimated that even 1.5 million birds use the site. In designating it a World Heritage Site, UNESCO wrote of the Great Barrier Reef, "The Great Barrier Reef is a site of remarkable variety and beauty on the north-east coast of Australia. It contains the world's largest collection of coral reefs, with 400 types of coral, 1,500 species of fish and 4,000 types of mollusc. It also holds great scientific interest as the habitat of species such as the dugong ('sea cow') and the large green turtle, which are threatened with extinction." Unfortunately, an ecosystem as complex as the Great Barrier Reef is also vulnerable to a host of threats, whether it's fishing, oil spills, or climate change. J.E.N. Veron, former chief scientist of the Australian Institute of Marine Science, described watching how coral was affected during what's known as a mass bleaching event: "And then I saw a whammy, a mass bleaching event ... where everything turns white and dies. Sometimes it's only the fast-growing branching corals, but some of the others are horrible to see; corals that are four, five, six hundred years old-they die, too... It's real, day in, day out, and I work on this, day in, day out. It's like seeing a house on fire in slow motion...There's a fire to end all fires, and you're watching it in slow motion, and you have been for years." In fact, scientists fear that the Great Barrier Reef has lost most of its coral cover in the last 30 years, which poses a danger to the species that inhabit it, some of which are already endangered. The Great Barrier Reef: The History of the World's Largest Coral Reef looks at the history of the reef and describes it in vivid detail. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Great Barrier Reef like never before, in no time at all.

The Gale Encyclopedia of Surgery: A Guide for Patients and Caregivers by Anthony J. Senagore
English | December 1, 2003 | ISBN: 0787677213 | 1600 pages | PDF | 23.1 Mb
Written especially for patients and allied healthcare students by experts in the field, the Gale Encyclopedia of Surgery provides in-depth coverage of approximately 450 surgical procedures and related topics, such as anesthetics, medications and postoperative care.

The First Salute: A View of the American Revolution by Barbara W. Tuchman
English | September 12, 1988 | ISBN: 0394553330, 0345336674 | True EPUB | 347 pages | 6.3MB
Barbara W. Tuchman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the classic The Guns of August, turns her sights homeward with this brilliant, insightful narrative of the Revolutionary War.

Michael J. Crowe, "The Extraterrestrial Life Debate, 1750-1900"
English | ISBN: 048640675X | 2011 | 720 pages | EPUB | 4 MB
"There isn't an uninteresting page in it. It is a masterly review of an intriguing subject, erudite and entertaining, clear and all-encompassing reading for anyone interested in 'one of the most wondrous and noble questions in nature' ― does extraterrestrial life exist?" ― New Scientist.Are we alone in the universe? Are there other beings on other worlds who gaze into the night sky and try to imagine us, as we try to imagine them? Those questions have been debated since antiquity, but it was during the Enlightenment that they particularly began to engage the interest of prominent scientists and thinkers. In this fascinating volume, Professor Michael Crowe offers the first in-depth study in English of the international debate that developed between 1750 and 1900 concerning the existence of extraterrestrial life, a problem that engaged an extraordinary variety of Western thinkers across the spectrum of intellectual endeavor. Astronomers such as Herschel, Bode, Lalande, and Flammarion all weighed in, along with French philosophers Rousseau and Voltaire, American patriot Thomas Paine, Scots churchman Thomas Chalmers, and a host of others. Professor Crowe gives them all their say, as they address the question as a point of science, as a problem of philosophy, as well as a religious issue. The book ends with the "discovery" by Schiaparelli of the canals of Mars, the expansion of the canal theory by the American astronomer Percival Lowell, and the culmination of the canal controversy with the demonstration of its illusory nature."Crowe's book is lucid and rich in historical detail. His analysis is so fascinating and his comments on the contemporary debate so pertinent that

Peter Bondanella, "The Eternal City: Roman Images in the Modern World "
English | ISBN: 0807865117 | 2011 | 304 pages | EPUB | 4 MB
A major new interpretation of the impact of ancient Rome on our culture, this study charts the effects of two diametrically opposed views of Roman antiquity: the virtuous republic of self-less citizen soldiers and the corrupt empire of power-hungry tyrants. The power of these images is second only to those derived from Christianity in constructing our modern culture. Few modern readers are aware of how indebted we are to the Roman model of our political philosophy, art, music, cinema, opera, and drama.

The Digitalisation of (Inter)Subjectivity: A Psy-critique of the Digital Death Drive By Jan De Vos
2020 | 222 Pages | ISBN: 113805304X | PDF | 5 MB
This book explores the responsibility of psychological and neuropsychological perspectives in relation to the digitalisation of inter-subjectivity. It examines how integral their theories and models have been to the development of digital technologies, and by combining theoretical and critical work of leading thinkers, it is a new and highly original perspective on (inter)subjectivity in the digital era. The book engages with artificial intelligence and cybernetics and the work of Alan Turing, Norbert Wiener, Marvin Minsky, Gregory Bateson, and Warren McCulloch to demonstrate how their use of neuropsy-theories persists in contemporary digital culture. The author aims to trace a trajectory from psychologisation to neurologisation, and finally, to digitalisation, to make us question the digital future of humankind in relation to the idea of subjectivity, and the threat of the 'death-drive' inherent to digitality itself. This volume is fascinating reading for students and researchers in the fields of critical psychology, neuroscience, education studies, philosophy, media studies, and other related areas.

David M. Whitford, "The Curse of Ham in the Early Modern Era: The Bible and the Justifications for Slavery "
English | ISBN: 0754666255 | 2009 | 244 pages | EPUB | 4 MB
For hundreds of years, the biblical story of the Curse of Ham was marshalled as a justification of serfdom, slavery and human bondage. According to the myth, having seen his father Noah naked, Ham's is cursed to have his descendants be forever slaves. In this new book the Curse of Ham is explored in its Reformation context, revealing how it became the cornerstone of the Christian defence of slavery and the slave trade for the next four hundred years. It shows how broader medieval interpretations of the story became marginalized in the early modern period as writers such as Annius of Viterbo and George Best began to weave the legend of Ham into their own books, expanding and adding to the legend in ways that established a firm connection between Ham, Africa, slavery and race. For although in the original biblical text Ham himself is not cursed and race is never mentioned, these writers helped develop the story of Ham into an ideological and theological defence for African slavery, at the precise time that the Transatlantic Slave Trade began to establish itself as a major part of the European economy during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Skilfully weaving together elements of theology, literature and history, this book provides a fascinating insight into the ways that issues of religion, economics and race could collide in the Reformation world. It will prove essential reading, not only for those with an interest in early modern history, but for anyone wishing to try to comprehend the origins of arguments used to justify slavery and segregation right up to the 1960s.

The Curation and Care of Museum Collections By Bruce A Campbell (editor), Christian Baars (editor)
2019 | 226 Pages | ISBN: 1138589195 | PDF | 4 MB
Museum curators enter the profession with a specialist subject qualification and yet at some point in their career, many curators find themselves in charge of a range of collections outside of their expert knowledge. Interpreting, curating and caring for mixed collections demands of curators a wide range of knowledge and understanding. The Curation and Care of Museum Collections is designed to give curators the fundamental information and confidence they need to manage and care for all of the collections within their responsibility, regardless of their previous training and experience. Comprising two sections - Museum Collections, and Collection Development and Care - the chapters cover archaeology, art, history, military and natural sciences collections, as well as heritage properties. Every chapter in the book is focused on one type of collection, but all chapters in the collection management section contain advice on topics such as organisational philosophy, documentation, legal issues and materials in order to provide a useful and comprehensive guide to managing collections. The collection care section is structured in the same way, considering the issues of storage; display; handling; moving; packing; housekeeping; health and safety; emergency preparedness; and pest, pollution, environmental, light and vibration management.The contributors to this book are experienced museum professionals, each with their own specialism and a deep understanding of what it means to work in the context of mixed collections. Providing a highly practical guide, The Curation and Care of Museum Collections is essential reading for curators working in all types of museums, galleries and heritage sites, and for students of museology courses around the world.

The Crime Fiction Tour of Britain: A Reader's Guide to British Crime, Mystery & Detective Novels by Steve J Haywood
English | 2021 | ISBN: N/A | ASIN: B09HR8KZ8V | 90 pages | EPUB | 0.18 Mb
Are you looking for your next great crime novel to read? Do you want to find your new favourite author? This guide to British Crime fiction will do just that. Whether you like contemporary crime, historical mysteries, Golden Age classics or Young Adult Crime fiction, there's plenty to discover with other 100 authors featured in the book. The guide takes you region by region through contemporary UK crime fiction, as well as historical crime fiction era by era from Ancient History to the 20th century.