Cosmic Trigger deals with a process of deliberately induced brain change. This process is called 'initiation' or 'vision quest' in many traditional... societies and can loosely be considered some dangerous variety of self-psychotherapy in modern terminology. I do not recommend it for everybody. The main thing I learned in my experiments is that 'reality' is always plural and mutable. -- From the Preface

Year after year a woman sits in her bare living quarters with her bags packed. She is waiting for a phone call from her snakehead, or human smuggler.... That longed-for call will send her out her door, away from Fuzhou, China, on a perilous, illicit journey to the United States. Nothing diffuses the promise of an overseas destiny: neither the ever-increasing smuggling fee for successful travel nor her knowledge of the deadly risks in transit and the exploitative labor conditions abroad. The sense of imminent departure enchants her every move and overshadows the banalities of her present life. In this engrossing ethnographic account of how the Fuzhounese translate their desires for mobility into projects worth pursuing, Julie Y. Chu focuses on Fuzhounese efforts to recast their social horizons beyond the limitations of “peasant life” in China. Transcending utilitarian questions of risks and rewards, she considers the overflow of aspirations in the Fuzhounese pursuit of transnational destinations. Chu attends not just to the migration of bodies, but also to flows of shipping containers, planes, luggage, immigration papers, money, food, prayers, and gods. By analyzing the intersections and disjunctures of these various flows, she explains how mobility operates as a sign embodied through everyday encounters and in the transactions of persons and things.

This is the 2nd edition of a highly successful title on this fascinating and complex subject. Concentrating primarily on the theory behind the origin... and the evolution of the universe, and where appropriate relating it to observation, the new features of the this addition include:An overall introduction to the bookTwo new chapters: Gravitational Lensing and Gravitational WavesEach part has a collection of exercises with solutions to numerical parts at the end of the bookContains a table of physical constantsThe addition of a consolidated bibilography

Beginning with basic facts about the observable universe, this book reviews the complete range of topics that make up a degree course in cosmology and... particle astrophysics. The book is self-contained - no specialised knowledge is required on the part of the reader, apart from undergraduate math and physics. This paperback edition targets students of physics, astrophysics and cosmology from advanced undergraduate to early graduate level.

Written in simple and accessible language, this non-technical introduction to cosmology, or the creation and development of the universe, explains the... discipline, covers its history, details the latest developments, and explains what is known, what is believed, and what is purely speculative. In addition, the author discusses the development of the Big Bang theory, and more speculative modern issues like quantum cosmology, superstrings, and dark matter.About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.

A most interesting collection of detailed but accessible contributions examining cosmology from multiple perspectives. The 31 chapters are organized in... nine sections: cosmology and culture, the Greeks' geometrical cosmos, medieval cosmology and literature, the scientific revolution, galaxies from s

“DeLillo’s most affecting novel yet...A dazzling, phosphorescent work of art.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times “The clearest vision yet... of what it felt like to live through that day.” —Malcolm Jones, Newsweek “A metaphysical ghost story about a woman alone…intimate, spare, exquisite.” —Adam Begley, The New York Times Book Review “A brilliant new novel....Don DeLillo continues to think about the modern world in language and images as quizzically beautiful as any writer.” — San Francisco Chronicle

The 21st century will be the century of multicultural cities, of the struggle for equality and diversity and the struggle against fundamentalism.... Cosmopolis II presents a truly global tour of contemporary cities - from Birmingham to Rotterdam, Frankfurt to Berlin, Sydney to Vancouver, and Chicago to East St. Louis. Passionately written and superbly illustrated with a range of specially commissioned images, Cosmopolis II is a visionary book of our urban future.