Archive for the 'History & Archaelogy' Category

Free Ebook

This is not the only available book on the creationism/evolution controversy; far from
it. Even if we consider only books published between 2000 and 2004, there are dozens
of books promoting, discussing, or opposing creationism.
So why another book on this subject? There are books that look at this complex
controversy from historical, legal, educational, political, scientific, and religious
perspectives — but no single book that looks at the controversy from all of these views.
For those needing a survey of the creationism/evolution controversy, Evolution vs.
Creationism: An Introduction provides “one-stop shopping,” so to speak, providing the
reader a foundation in the ideas that have shaped this controversy. For those who are
intrigued enough to pursue the topic in more detail, the additional resources will lead
to a deeper understanding. Predictably, the Internet has scores of Web sites promoting
various sides of the controversy, but equally predictably, sites vary enormously in
their accuracy—regardless of which side the site supports. This book gives students
and their teachers a foundation in science and religion that they can use as a road
map to help avoid the potholes on the “information superhighway.”

Many teachers are questioned by students about the creationism/evolution controversy
in science classes, and not infrequently in nonscience classes as well. This
book is intended also to be a volume to which teachers can refer students for the
answers to many of their questions. It can be used for supplemental reading for classes
in the sciences, or philosophy of science, and also in social studies courses (history,
sociology, political science) dealing with contemporary modern problems. At the
college level, this book could provide an excellent overview for the “creationism and
evolution” courses now entering the curriculum at many institutions.
Unlike most other books on the creationism/evolution controversy, I have included
excerpts from the creationist literature as well as rebuttals. Much of the creationist
literature is not readily available except in sectarian publications and Christian bookstores,
and public school libraries are properly reluctant to carry such obviously devotional
literature. I have made selections from the literature that are representative
of the major themes found in the creationism/evolution controversy, and have attempted
to let antievolutionists speak in their own voices.

Eugenie C. Scott

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook Read the rest of this entry »

A History of Modern Computing by Paul E. Ceruzzi

Author: admin

November 17, 2008

Free Ebook

This engaging history covers modern computing from the development of the first
electronic digital computer through the dot-com crash. The author concentrates
on five key moments of transition: the transformation of the computer in the
late 1940s from a specialized scientific instrument to a commercial product; the
emergence of small systems in the late 1960s; the beginning of personal
computing in the 1970s; the spread of networking after 1985; and, in a chapter
written for this edition, the period 1995-2001. The new material focuses on the
Microsoft antitrust suit, the rise and fall of the dot-coms, and the advent of
open source software, particularly Linux.

Computers were invented to ‘‘compute’’: to solve ‘‘complex mathematical
problems,’’ as the dictionary still defines that word.1 They still do
that, but that is not why we are living in an ‘‘Information Age.’’ That
reflects other things that computers do: store and retrieve data, manage
networks of communications, process text, generate and manipulate
images and sounds, fly air and space craft, and so on. Deep inside a
computer are circuits that do those things by transforming them into a
mathematical language. But most of us never see the equations, and few
of us would understand them if we did. Most of us, nevertheless,
participate in this digital culture, whether by using an ATM card,
composing and printing an office newsletter, calling a mail-order
house on a toll-free number and ordering some clothes for next-day
delivery, or shopping at a mega-mall where the inventory is replenished
‘‘just-in-time.’’ For these and many other applications, we can use all the
power of this invention without ever seeing an equation. As far as the
public face is concerned, ‘‘computing’’ is the least important thing that
computers do.
But it was to solve equations that the electronic digital computer was
invented. The word ‘‘computer’’ originally meant a person who solved
equations; it was only around 1945 that the name was carried over to
machinery.2
That an invention should find a place in society unforeseen by its
inventors is not surprising.3 The story of the computer illustrates that. It
is not that the computer ended up not being used for calculation—it is
used for calculation by most practicing scientists and engineers today.
That much, at least, the computer’s inventors predicted. But people
found ways to get the invention to do a lot more. How they did that,
transforming the mathematical engines of the 1940s to the networked
information appliance of the 1990s, is the subject of this book.

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook Read the rest of this entry »

Free Ebook

Contemporary philosophy of mathematics offers us an embarrassment of riches.
Among the major areas of work one could list developments of the classical
foundational programs, analytic approaches to epistemology and ontology of
mathematics, and developments at the intersection of history and philosophy of
mathematics. But anyone familiar with contemporary philosophy of mathematics
will be aware of the need for new approaches that pay closer attention to
mathematical practice. This book is the first attempt to give a coherent and
unified presentation of this new wave of work in philosophy of mathematics. The
new approach is innovative at least in two ways. First, it holds that there are
important novel characteristics of contemporary mathematics that are just as
worthy of philosophical attention as the distinction between constructive and
non-constructive mathematics at the time of the foundational debates. Secondly,
it holds that many topics which escape purely formal logical treatment–such as
visualization, explanation, and understanding–can nonetheless be subjected to
philosophical analysis.

Paolo Mancosu is Professor of Philosophy at U.C. Berkeley. His main
interests are in logic, history and philosophy of mathematics, and history
and philosophy of logic. He is the author of Philosophy of Mathematics and
Mathematical Practice in the Seventeenth Century (OUP 1996) and editor of From
Brouwer to Hilbert. The debate on the foundations of mathematics in the 1920s
(OUP 1988). He has recently co-edited the volume Visualization, Explanation
and Reasoning Styles in Mathematics (Springer 2005). He is currently working on
mathematical explanation and on Tarskian themes (truth, logical consequence,
logical constants) in philosophy of logic.

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook Read the rest of this entry »

Free Ebook

24 years of enduring exploits, creative controversy, and hackers who made
history

It’s colorful, controversial, cutting-edge — and you can’t wait to read the next
issue. Since its birth in 1984, 2600: The Hacker Quarterly has published the
discoveries and adventures of hackers worldwide. Now you can enjoy the best of
them all in this entertaining, provocative collection. From the first curious
and intrepid souls who discovered they could outwit Ma Bell to those who’ve
hacked the Department of Defense and ParadisePoker.com, they’re all here,
telling their stories in their own words.

Emmanuel Goldstein (emmanuel@goldste.in) has been publishing 2600 Magazine, The
Hacker Quarterly, since 1984. He traces his hacker roots to his high school days
in the late ’70s, when he first played with a distant computer over high-speed,
300-baud phone lines. It didn’t take long for him to get into trouble by figuring
out how to access something he wasn’t supposed to access. He continued playing
with various machines in his college days at the State University of New York at
Stony Brook. This resulted in an FBI raid as he once again gained access to something
he really shouldn’t have. It was in the midst of all of this excitement that he
cofounded 2600 Magazine, an outlet for hacker stories and tutorials from all over
the world. The rapid growth and success of the magazine was both shocking and scary
to Goldstein, who to this day has never taken a course in computers. Since 1988,
he has also hosted Off The Hook, a hacker-themed technology talk show on WBAI 99.5 FM
in New York City. In addition to making the hacker documentary Freedom Downtime,
Goldstein hosts the Hackers On Planet Earth (HOPE) conferences in New York City every
two years, drawing thousands of hackers from all over the world.
You can contact 2600 online at www.2600.com or by writing to 2600 Magazine, P.O.
Box 752, Middle Island, NY, 11953.

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook Read the rest of this entry »

Free Ebook

This dictionary covers, in one volume, over 1800 of the most important deities
and demons from around the world. From classical Greek and Roman mythology to
the gods of Eastern Europe and Mesopotamia, from Nordic giants to Islamic jinns
and Egyptian monsters, it is packed with descriptions of the figures most
worshipped and feared around the world and across time. Fully cross-referenced
and featuring two handy guides to the functions and attributes shared by those
featured, this dictionary is the essential resource for anyone interested in
comparative religion and the mythology of the ancient and contemporary worlds.

From classical Greek and Roman mythology to the gods of Eastern Europe and
Mesopotamia; from Nordic giants to Islamic jinns and Egyptian monsters, this classic
dictionary is packed with descriptions of the figures most worshipped and feared around
the world and across time. Fully cross-referenced and with over 100 illustrations, it also
features two handy appendices listing the functions and attributes shared by these
deities and demons.
Covering over 1800 of the most important gods and demons from around the world,
this is the essential resource for anyone interested in comparative religion and the
mythology of the ancient and contemporary worlds.

Manfred Lurker was, from 1968 to 1980, editor of the Bibliography of Symbolism,
Iconography and Mythology. He has published widely on symbolism and the history of
religion.

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook

Free Ebook Read the rest of this entry »

You are currently browsing the archives for the History & Archaelogy category.

Site Map

 

January 2009
M T W T F S S
« Dec    
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031  

Tags