Are we all scientific experts now?
【作 者】Harry Collins
【出版社】Polity Press; 1 edition (28 Feb. 2014)
【馆藏地】文科馆外文图书阅览室
【索书号】B82-057 /C712 /E
【简 介】To ordinary people, science used to seem infallible. Scientists were heroes, selflessly pursuing knowledge for the common good. More recently, a series of scientific scandals, frauds and failures have led us to question science s pre–eminence. Revelations such as Climategate, or debates about the safety of the MMR vaccine, have dented our confidence in science.
In this provocative new book Harry Collins seeks to redeem scientific expertise, and reasserts science s special status. Despite the messy realities of day–to–day scientific endeavor, he emphasizes the superior moral qualities of science, dismissing the dubious default expertise displayed by many of those outside the scientific community. Science, he argues, should serve as an example to ordinary citizens of how to think and act, and not the other way round.
Schoolgirls, money and rebellion in Japan
【作 者】Sharon Kinsella
【出版社】Routledge (7 Nov. 2013)
【馆藏地】文科馆外文图书阅览室
【索书号】C913.5 /K56 /E
【简 介】Japanese society in the 1990s and 2000s produced a range of complicated material about sexualized schoolgirls, and few topics have caught the imagination of western observers so powerfully. While young Japanese girls had previously been portrayed as demure and obedient, in training to become the obedient wife and prudent mother, in recent years less than demure young women have become central to urban mythology and the content of culture. The cultic fascination with the figure of a deviant school girl, which has some of its earliest roots in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, likewise re-emerged and proliferated in fascinating and timely ways in the 1990s and 2000s.
Through exploring the history and politics underlying the cult of girls in contemporary Japanese media and culture, this book presents a striking picture of contemporary Japanese society from the 1990s to the start of the 2010s. At its core is an in-depth case study of the media delight and panic surrounding delinquent prostitute schoolgirls. Sharon Kinsella traces this social panic back to male anxieties relating to gender equality and female emancipation in Japan. In each chapter in turn, the book reveals the conflicted, nostalgic, pornographic, and at times distinctly racialized manner, in which largely male sentiments about this transformation of gender relations have been expressed. The book simultaneously explores the stylistic and flamboyant manner in which young women have reacted to the weight of an obsessive and accusatory male media gaze.
David Harvey's geography
【作 者】John L. Paterson
【出版社】Routledge; Reissue edition (4 Dec. 2013)
【馆藏地】文科馆外文图书阅览室
【索书号】K901 /P296 /E
【简 介】The emphasis of this book is to explore two major philosophical influences in contemporary human geography, namely logical positivism and Marxism, and to explore the relationships between philosophy, methodology and geographical research. Rather than being a biography of David Harvey, the book contributes to the understanding of one of the most innovative and iconoclastic scholars in contemporary Anglo-American human geography.
The Proteus Paradox: How Online Games and Virtual Worlds Change Us-- and How They Don'
【作 者】Nick Yee
【出版社】Yale University Press (4 Feb. 2014)
【馆藏地】文科馆外文图书阅览室
【索书号】G898.3 /Y42 /E
【简 介】Proteus, the mythical sea god who could alter his appearance at will, embodies one of the promises of online games: the ability to reinvent oneself. Yet inhabitants of virtual worlds rarely achieve this liberty, game researcher Nick Yee contends. Though online games evoke freedom and escapism, Yee shows that virtual spaces perpetuate social norms and stereotypes from the offline world, transform play into labor, and inspire racial scapegoating and superstitious thinking. And the change that does occur is often out of our control and effected by unparalleled-but rarely recognized-tools for controlling what players think and how they behave. Using player surveys, psychological experiments, and in-game data, Yee breaks down misconceptions about who plays fantasy games and the extent to which the online and offline worlds operate separately. With a wealth of entertaining and provocative examples, he explains what virtual worlds are about and why they matter, not only for entertainment but also for business and education. He uses gaming as a lens through which to examine the pressing question of what it means to be human in a digital world. His thought-provoking book is an invitation to think more deeply about virtual worlds and what they reveal to us about ourselves.
Wizards, aliens, and starships : Physics and Math in Fantasy and Science Fiction
【作 者】Charles L. Adler
【出版社】 Princeton University Press (2 Feb. 2014)
【馆藏地】数学分馆图书阅览室
【索书号】I106.4 /A237 /E
【简 介】From teleportation and space elevators to alien contact and interstellar travel, science fiction and fantasy writers have come up with some brilliant and innovative ideas. Yet how plausible are these ideas--for instance, could Mr. Weasley's flying car in the Harry Potter books really exist? Which concepts might actually happen, and which ones wouldn't work at all? Wizards, Aliens, and Starships delves into the most extraordinary details in science fiction and fantasy--such as time warps, shape changing, rocket launches, and illumination by floating candle--and shows readers the physics and math behind the phenomena.
With simple mathematical models, and in most cases using no more than high school algebra, Charles Adler ranges across a plethora of remarkable imaginings, from the works of Ursula K. Le Guin to Star Trek and Avatar, to explore what might become reality. Adler explains why fantasy in the Harry Potter and Dresden Files novels cannot adhere strictly to scientific laws, and when magic might make scientific sense in the muggle world. He examines space travel and wonders why it isn't cheaper and more common today. Adler also discusses exoplanets and how the search for alien life has shifted from radio communications to space-based telescopes. He concludes by investigating the future survival of humanity and other intelligent races. Throughout, he cites an abundance of science fiction and fantasy authors, and includes concise descriptions of stories as well as an appendix on Newton's laws of motion.
Confronting memories of World War II
【作 者】Daniel Chirot
【出版社】University of Washington Press (25 May 2014)
【馆藏地】文科馆外文图书阅览室
【索书号】K152-05 /C748 /E
【简 介】The legacy of the Second World War has been, like the war itself, an international phenomenon. In both Europe and Asia, common questions of criminality, guilt, and collaboration have intersected with history and politics on the local level to shape the way that wartime experience has been memorialized, reinterpreted, and used.
By directly comparing European and Asian legacies, Confronting Memories of World War II, provides unique insight into the way that World War II continues to influence contemporary attitudes and politics on a global scale. The collection brings together experts from a variety of disciplines and perspectives to explore the often overlooked commonalities between European and Asian handling of memories and reflections about guilt. These commonalities suggest new understandings of the war's legacy and the continuing impact of historical trauma.
Tales from both sides of the brain: a life in neuroscience
【作 者】Michael S. Gazzaniga
【出版社】Ecco Press (3 Feb. 2015)
【馆藏地】文科馆外文图书阅览室
【索书号】K837.126.2 /G291 /E
【简 介】Books about science are plentiful these days, and a substantial number deal with topics related to the brain. But no one tells a better, more informative, and entertaining story about brain research than Michael Gazzaniga. While still a graduate student at Caltech, Gazzaniga did pioneering work on split brain patients for which his mentor Roger Sperry was awarded the Nobel Prize. In this book, Gazzaniga tells a fascinating tale of how he got into brain research (there is a girl friend involved), and how his career progressed from a lowly graduate student, albeit in one of the top labs in the world, to the very pinnacle of the field of cognitive neuroscience, a field that he founded. There are lots and lots of amusing anecdotes, which aptly illustrate the vicissitudes of scientific research and life in general. Those interested in science will benefit enormously from learning how world-class, ground breaking research is actually done. Those with little or no interest in science will be entertained and amused by the experiences of this remarkable human being.
Making Democracy Fun: How Game Design Can Empower Citizens and Transform Politics
【作 者】Josh Lerner
【出版社】 MIT Press (4 April 2014)
【馆藏地】文科馆外文图书阅览室
【索书号】D082-05 /L616 /E
【简 介】Anyone who has ever been to a public hearing or community meeting would agree that participatory democracy can be boring. Hours of repetitive presentations, alternatingly alarmist or complacent, for or against, accompanied by constant heckling, often with no clear outcome or decision. Is this the best democracy can offer? In Making Democracy Fun, Josh Lerner offers a novel solution for the sad state of our deliberative democracy: the power of good game design. What if public meetings featured competition and collaboration (such as team challenges), clear rules (presented and modeled in multiple ways), measurable progress (such as scores and levels), and engaging sounds and visuals? These game mechanics would make meetings more effective and more enjoyable -- even fun. Lerner reports that institutions as diverse as the United Nations, the U.S. Army, and grassroots community groups are already using games and game-like processes to encourage participation. Drawing on more than a decade of practical experience and extensive research, he explains how games have been integrated into a variety of public programs in North and South America. He offers rich stories of game techniques in action, in children's councils, social service programs, and participatory budgeting and planning. With these real-world examples in mind, Lerner describes five kinds of games and twenty-six game mechanics that are especially relevant for democracy. He finds that when governments and organizations use games and design their programs to be more like games, public participation becomes more attractive, effective, and transparent. Game design can make democracy fun -- and make it work.
The Meaning of Meaning: A Study of the Influence of Language Upon Thought and of the Science of Symbolism
【作 者】Charles K. Ogden
【出版社】Routledge (23 Dec. 2014)
【馆藏地】文科馆外文图书阅览室
【索书号】B842.5 /O34 /E
【简 介】"Language is the most important of all the instruments of civilization." The authors state this premise boldly in their preface to "The Meaning of Meaning," a classic work whose significance--and challenge--to the study of language, literature, and philosophy has remained undiminished since its original publication.
Much about language continues to be only hazily understood, distorted by our habitual attitude--often one of indifference--toward words, or by lingering assumptions based on discredited theories. What IS the relationship between words and what the words refer to? Between words and the way we think? Can understanding such matters lead to greater precision in communication? Readers considering these questions find themselves at the crossroads of linguistics and communications theory, of literary criticism and philosophy--an interdisciplinary nexus claimed by the increasingly influential field of semiotics--and "The Meaning of Meaning" will prove, as it has over the last six decades, an essential resource.
In his introduction Umberto Eco, emininent novelist and, not coincidentally, semiotician, provides a fascinating perspective on this pioneering work that continues to disturb intellectual complacency and provoke thought and discussion.
Tyranny of the weak : North Korea and the world, 1950-1992
【作 者】Charles K. Armstrong
【出版社】Cornell University Press (13 Jun. 2013)
【馆藏地】文科馆外文图书阅览室
【索书号】K312.5 /A735 /E
【简 介】To much of the world, North Korea is an impenetrable mystery, its inner workings unknown and its actions toward the outside unpredictable and frequently provocative. Tyranny of the Weak reveals for the first time the motivations, processes, and effects of North Korea's foreign relations during the Cold War era. Drawing on extensive research in the archives of North Korea's present and former communist allies, including the Soviet Union, China, and East Germany, Charles K. Armstrong tells in vivid detail how North Korea managed its alliances with fellow communist states, maintained a precarious independence in the Sino-Soviet split, attempted to reach out to the capitalist West and present itself as a model for Third World development, and confronted and engaged with its archenemies, the United States and South Korea.
From the invasion that set off the Korean War in June 1950 to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Tyranny of the Weak shows how—despite its objective weakness—North Korea has managed for much of its history to deal with the outside world to its maximum advantage. Insisting on a path of "self-reliance" since the 1950s, North Korea has continually resisted pressure to change from enemies and allies alike. A worldview formed in the crucible of the Korean War and Cold War still maintains a powerful hold on North Korea in the twenty-first century, and understanding those historical forces is as urgent today as it was sixty years ago.