Light -- our experience of light, our measurement of light, and the notion that light speed is constant -- can be understood to mark our interface with the cosmos. David A. Grandy's book moves from the scientific to the existential, from Einstein to Merleau-Ponty, from light as a phenomenon to light as that which is constitutive of reality. To measure the speed of light is to measure something about the way we are measured or blended into the cosmos, and that universal blending predetermines our measurement of light speed in favor of a universal or constant value. It's quite a trip, one aimed at scientists who have pondered light speed constancy, philosophers inclined to question the idea that mind and world are distinct, and scientifically or philosophically inclined persons who enjoy stretching themselves in new ways.
Most people have heard about quantum physics and its remarkable, well-nigh bizarre claims. And most people would assume that quantum reality describes a world quite different from ours. In this book, David A. Grandy shows that one can find quantum puzzles, or variations thereof, in the backyard of everyday experience. What disappears in transferring quantum theory to the everyday is the theory's mathematical formalism, but that need not imply a loss of analytic rigor. If quantum reality is truly as elemental and ubiquitous as many thinkers suggest, then alternative or complementary perspectives ought to be possible, and with the proliferation of such perspectives, a more fully rounded understanding of quantum reality -- and everyday reality -- might emerge. Everyday Quantum Reality is a step in that direction.
[P.D. Ouspensky's] yearning for a transcendent, timeless reality—one that cancels out physical disintegration and death—figures into science at some fundamental level. Einstein found solace in his theory of relativity, which suggested to him that events are ever-present in the space-time continuum. When his friend Michele Besso passed on shortly before his own death, he wrote: 'For us believing physicists the distinction between past, present, and future is only an illusion, even if a stubborn one.'" —from Magic, Mystery, and Science The triumph of science would appear to have routed all other explanations of reality. No longer does astrology or alchemy or magic have the power to explain the world to us. Yet at one time each of these systems of belief, like religion, helped shed light on what was dark to our understanding. Nor have the occult arts disappeared. We humans have a need for mystery and a sense of the infinite. Magic, Mystery, and Science presents the occult as a "third stream" of belief, as important to the shaping of Western civilization as Greek rationalism or Judeo-Christianity. The occult seeks explanations in a world that is living and intelligent—quite unlike the one supposed by science. By taking these beliefs seriously, while keeping an eye on science, this book aims to capture some of the power of the occult. Readers will discover that the occult has a long history that reaches back to Babylonia and ancient Egypt. It proceeds alongside, and frequently mingles with, religion and science. From the Egyptian Book of the Dead to New Age beliefs, from Plato to Adolf Hitler, occult ways of knowing have been used—and hideously abused—to explain a world that still tempts us with the knowledge of its dark secrets.
Mr. Buddy and Grandy is a collection of stories about a grandfather and grandson and the things they did together. A focus of this book is to provide grandparents, or in fact any adults, some ideas of things they could do with kids, be they grandchildren, children, nephews, nieces, and the wonderful benefits that would flow from the experiences. Although these stories focus on a grandfather and his grandson, many of the same activities would translate equally well to granddaughters. The overarching theme of this book-doing simple things together with a child-applies to anyone who would like to enrich and brighten the life of a young boy or girl. I believe that the more time grandparents and grandchildren can spend together exploring the world around them, playing, enjoying the outdoors-really just doing simple things together-the stronger their family bonds will be, the better prepared for adolescence and adulthood the children will be, and the better the world will be as a result.
Mr. Buddy and Grandy is a collection of stories about a grandfather and grandson and the things they did together. A focus of this book is to provide grandparents, or in fact any adults, some ideas of things they could do with kids, be they grandchildren, children, nephews, nieces, and the wonderful benefits that would flow from the experiences. Although these stories focus on a grandfather and his grandson, many of the same activities would translate equally well to granddaughters. The overarching theme of this book-doing simple things together with a child-applies to anyone who would like to enrich and brighten the life of a young boy or girl. I believe that the more time grandparents and grandchildren can spend together exploring the world around them, playing, enjoying the outdoors-really just doing simple things together-the stronger their family bonds will be, the better prepared for adolescence and adulthood the children will be, and the better the world will be as a result.
The first major study of slavery in the maritime South, The Waterman's Song chronicles the world of slave and free black fishermen, pilots, rivermen, sailors, ferrymen, and other laborers who, from the colonial era through Reconstruction, plied the vast inland waters of North Carolina from the Outer Banks to the upper reaches of tidewater rivers. Demonstrating the vitality and significance of this local African American maritime culture, David Cecelski also reveals its connections to the Afro-Caribbean, the relatively egalitarian work culture of seafaring men who visited nearby ports, and the revolutionary political tides that coursed throughout the black Atlantic. Black maritime laborers played an essential role in local abolitionist activity, slave insurrections, and other antislavery activism. They also boatlifted thousands of slaves to freedom during the Civil War. But most important, Cecelski says, they carried an insurgent, democratic vision born in the maritime districts of the slave South into the political maelstrom of the Civil War and Reconstruction.
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