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Machines and Signs
by Edoardo RovidaThis volume addresses the cultural, technical and ethical motivations of the history of drawing of machines and its developments step by step. First it treats drawings without any technical character; then the Renaissance with its new forms of drawing; the 18th century, with orthographic projections, immediately used by industry; the 19th century, including the applications of drawing in industry; and the 20th century, with the standardization institutions and the use of the computer. The role of historical drawings and archives in modern design is also examined. This book is of value to all those who are interested in technical drawing, either from an artistic, from a design, or from an engineering point of view.
Machines and Weaponry of the Gulf War (Machines that Won the War)
by Charlie SamuelsOne of the most successful military campaigns in American history was won with heavy firepower and high-tech weaponry. Readers explore the world of military machines and the science behind the United States battles in the Persian Gulf. Firsthand accounts from soldiers who developed and operated these weapons will help readers understand how the development and application of technology can mean the difference between winning and losing the biggest battles in history.
Machines as the Measure of Men: Science, Technology, and Ideologies of Western Dominance (Cornell Studies in Comparative History)
by Michael AdasOver the past five centuries, advances in Western understanding of and control over the material world have strongly influenced European responses to non-Western peoples and cultures. In Machines as the Measure of Men, Michael Adas explores the ways in which European perceptions of their scientific and technological superiority shaped their interactions with people overseas. Adopting a broad, comparative perspective, he analyzes European responses to the cultures of sub-Saharan Africa, India, and China, cultures that they judged to represent lower levels of material mastery and social organization. Beginning with the early decades of overseas expansion in the sixteenth century, Adas traces the impact of scientific and technological advances on European attitudes toward Asians and Africans and on their policies for dealing with colonized societies. He concentrates on British and French thinking in the nineteenth century, when, he maintains, scientific and technological measures of human worth played a critical role in shaping arguments for the notion of racial supremacy and the "civilizing mission" ideology which were used to justify Europe's domination of the globe. Finally, he examines the reasons why many Europeans grew dissatisfied with and even rejected this gauge of human worth after World War I, and explains why it has remained important to Americans. Showing how the scientific and industrial revolutions contributed to the development of European imperialist ideologies, Machines as the Measure of Men highlights the cultural factors that have nurtured disdain for non-Western accomplishments and value systems. It also indicates how these attitudes, in shaping policies that restricted the diffusion of scientific knowledge, have perpetuated themselves, and contributed significantly to chronic underdevelopment throughout the developing world. Adas's far-reaching and provocative book will be compelling reading for all who are concerned about the history of Western imperialism and its legacies. First published to wide acclaim in 1989, Machines as the Measure of Men is now available in a new edition that features a preface by the author that discusses how subsequent developments in gender and race studies, as well as global technology and politics, enter into conversation with his original arguments.
Machines in Our Hearts: The Cardiac Pacemaker, the Implantable Defibrillator, and American Health Care
by Kirk JeffreyToday hundreds of thousands of Americans carry pacemakers and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) within their bodies. These battery-powered machines—small computers, in fact—deliver electricity to the heart to correct dangerous disorders of the heartbeat. But few doctors, patients, or scholars know the history of these devices or how "heart-rhythm management" evolved into a multi-billion-dollar manufacturing and service industry. Machines in Our Hearts tells the story of these two implantable medical devices. Kirk Jeffrey, a historian of science and technology, traces the development of knowledge about the human heartbeat and follows surgeons, cardiologists, and engineers as they invent and test a variety of electronic devices. Numerous small manufacturing firms jumped into pacemaker production but eventually fell by the wayside, leaving only three American companies in the business today. Jeffrey profiles pioneering heart surgeons, inventors from the realms of engineering and medical research, and business leaders who built heart-rhythm management into an industry with thousands of employees and annual revenues in the hundreds of millions. As Jeffrey shows, the pacemaker (first implanted in 1958) and the ICD (1980) embody a paradox of high-tech health care: these technologies are effective and reliable but add billions to the nation's medical bill because of the huge growth in the number of patients who depend on implanted devices to manage their heartbeats.
Machines of Loving Grace: The Quest for Common Ground Between Humans and Robots
by John MarkoffRobots are poised to transform today's society as completely as the Internet did twenty years ago. Pulitzer prize-winning New York Times science writer John Markoff argues that we must decide to design ourselves into our future, or risk being excluded from it altogether.In the past decade, Google introduced us to driverless cars; Apple debuted Siri, a personal assistant that we keep in our pockets; and an Internet of Things connected the smaller tasks of everyday life to the farthest reaches of the Web. Robots have become an integral part of society on the battlefield and the road; in business, education, and health care. Cheap sensors and powerful computers will ensure that in the coming years, these robots will act on their own. This new era offers the promise of immensely powerful machines, but it also reframes a question first raised more than half a century ago, when the intelligent machine was born. Will we control these systems, or will they control us?In Machines of Loving Grace, John Markoff offers a sweeping history of the complicated and evolving relationship between humans and computers. In recent years, the pace of technological change has accelerated dramatically, posing an ethical quandary. If humans delegate decisions to machines, who will be responsible for the consequences? As Markoff chronicles the history of automation, from the birth of the artificial intelligence and intelligence augmentation communities in the 1950s and 1960s, to the modern-day brain trusts at Google and Apple in Silicon Valley, and on to the expanding robotics economy around Boston, he traces the different ways developers have addressed this fundamental problem and urges them to carefully consider the consequences of their work. We are on the brink of the next stage of the computer revolution, Markoff argues, and robots will profoundly transform modern life. Yet it remains for us to determine whether this new world will be a utopia. Moreover, it is now incumbent upon the designers of these robots to draw a bright line between what is human and what is machine.After nearly forty years covering the tech industry, Markoff offers an unmatched perspective on the most drastic technology-driven societal shifts since the introduction of the Internet. Machines of Loving Grace draws on an extensive array of research and interviews to present an eye-opening history of one of the most pressing questions of our time, and urges us to remember that we still have the opportunity to design ourselves into the future—before it's too late.
Machines of Nature and Corporeal Substances in Leibniz
by Justin E. Smith Ohad NachtomyIn recent decades, there has been much scholarly controversy as to the basic ontological commitments of the philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716). The old picture of his thought as strictly idealistic, or committed to the ultimate reduction of bodies to the activity of mind, has come under attack, but Leibniz's precise conceptualization of bodies, and the role they play in his system as a whole, is still the subject of much controversy. One thing that has become clear is that in order to understand the nature of body in Leibniz, and the role body plays in his philosophy, it is crucial to pay attention to the related concepts of organism and of corporeal substance, the former being Leibniz's account of the structure of living bodies (which turn out, for him, to be the only sort of bodies there are), and the latter being an inheritance from the Aristotelian hylomorphic tradition which Leibniz appropriates for his own ends. This volume brings together papers from many of the leading scholars of Leibniz's thought, all of which deal with the cluster of questions surrounding Leibniz's philosophy of body.
Machines of Youth: America’s Car Obsession
by Gary S. CrossFor American teenagers, getting a driver’s license has long been a watershed moment, separating teens from their childish pasts as they accelerate toward the sweet, sweet freedom of their futures. With driver’s license in hand, teens are on the road to buying and driving(and maybe even crashing) their first car, a machine which is home to many a teenage ritual—being picked up for a first date, “parking” at a scenic overlook, or blasting the radio with a gaggle of friends in tow. So important is this car ride into adulthood that automobile culture has become a stand-in, a shortcut to what millions of Americans remember about their coming of age. Machines of Youth traces the rise, and more recently the fall, of car culture among American teens. In this book, Gary S. Cross details how an automobile obsession drove teen peer culture from the 1920s to the 1980s, seducing budding adults with privacy, freedom, mobility, and spontaneity. Cross shows how the automobile redefined relationships between parents and teenage children, becoming a rite of passage, producing new courtship rituals, and fueling the growth of numerous car subcultures. Yet for teenagers today the lure of the automobile as a transition to adulthood is in decline.Tinkerers are now sidelined by the advent of digital engine technology and premolded body construction, while the attention of teenagers has been captured by iPhones, video games, and other digital technology. And adults have become less tolerant of teens on the road, restricting both cruising and access to drivers’ licenses. Cars are certainly not going out of style, Cross acknowledges, but how upcoming generations use them may be changing. He finds that while vibrant enthusiasm for them lives on, cars may no longer be at the center of how American youth define themselves. But, for generations of Americans, the modern teen experience was inextricably linked to this particularly American icon.
Machines of the Mind: Personification in Medieval Literature
by Katharine BreenIn Machines of the Mind, Katharine Breen proposes that medieval personifications should be understood neither as failed novelistic characters nor as instruments of heavy-handed didacticism. She argues that personifications are instead powerful tools for thought that help us to remember and manipulate complex ideas, testing them against existing moral and political paradigms. Specifically, different types of medieval personification should be seen as corresponding to positions in the rich and nuanced medieval debate over universals. Breen identifies three different types of personification—Platonic, Aristotelian, and Prudentian—that gave medieval writers a surprisingly varied spectrum with which to paint their characters. Through a series of new readings of major authors and works, from Plato to Piers Plowman, Breen illuminates how medieval personifications embody the full range of positions between philosophical realism and nominalism, varying according to the convictions of individual authors and the purposes of individual works. Recalling Gregory the Great’s reference to machinae mentis (machines of the mind), Breen demonstrates that medieval writers applied personification with utility and subtlety, employing methods of personification as tools that serve different functions. Machines of the Mind offers insight for medievalists working at the crossroads of religion, philosophy, and literature, as well as for scholars interested in literary character-building and gendered relationships among characters, readers, and texts beyond the Middle Ages.
Machines of the Mind: Personification in Medieval Literature
by Katharine BreenIn Machines of the Mind, Katharine Breen proposes that medieval personifications should be understood neither as failed novelistic characters nor as instruments of heavy-handed didacticism. She argues that personifications are instead powerful tools for thought that help us to remember and manipulate complex ideas, testing them against existing moral and political paradigms. Specifically, different types of medieval personification should be seen as corresponding to positions in the rich and nuanced medieval debate over universals. Breen identifies three different types of personification—Platonic, Aristotelian, and Prudentian—that gave medieval writers a surprisingly varied spectrum with which to paint their characters. Through a series of new readings of major authors and works, from Plato to Piers Plowman, Breen illuminates how medieval personifications embody the full range of positions between philosophical realism and nominalism, varying according to the convictions of individual authors and the purposes of individual works. Recalling Gregory the Great’s reference to machinae mentis (machines of the mind), Breen demonstrates that medieval writers applied personification with utility and subtlety, employing methods of personification as tools that serve different functions. Machines of the Mind offers insight for medievalists working at the crossroads of religion, philosophy, and literature, as well as for scholars interested in literary character-building and gendered relationships among characters, readers, and texts beyond the Middle Ages.
Machines of the Mind: Personification in Medieval Literature
by Katharine BreenIn Machines of the Mind, Katharine Breen proposes that medieval personifications should be understood neither as failed novelistic characters nor as instruments of heavy-handed didacticism. She argues that personifications are instead powerful tools for thought that help us to remember and manipulate complex ideas, testing them against existing moral and political paradigms. Specifically, different types of medieval personification should be seen as corresponding to positions in the rich and nuanced medieval debate over universals. Breen identifies three different types of personification—Platonic, Aristotelian, and Prudentian—that gave medieval writers a surprisingly varied spectrum with which to paint their characters. Through a series of new readings of major authors and works, from Plato to Piers Plowman, Breen illuminates how medieval personifications embody the full range of positions between philosophical realism and nominalism, varying according to the convictions of individual authors and the purposes of individual works. Recalling Gregory the Great’s reference to machinae mentis (machines of the mind), Breen demonstrates that medieval writers applied personification with utility and subtlety, employing methods of personification as tools that serve different functions. Machines of the Mind offers insight for medievalists working at the crossroads of religion, philosophy, and literature, as well as for scholars interested in literary character-building and gendered relationships among characters, readers, and texts beyond the Middle Ages.
Macho Row: The 1993 Phillies and Baseball's Unwritten Code
by William C. KashatusColorful, shaggy, and unkempt, misfits and outlaws, the 1993 Phillies played hard and partied hard. Led by Darren Daulton, John Kruk, Lenny Dykstra, and Mitch Williams, it was a team the fans loved and continue to love today. Focusing on six key members of the team, Macho Row follows the remarkable season with an up-close look at the players’ lives, the team’s triumphs and failures, and what made this group so unique and so successful. With a throwback mentality, the team adhered to baseball’s Code. Designed to preserve the moral fabric of the game, the Code’s unwritten rules of the game formed the bedrock of this diehard team whose players paid homage and respect to the game at all times. Trusting one another and avoiding ideas of superstardom, they consistently rubbed the opposition the wrong way and didn’t care. William C. Kashatus pulls back the covers on this old-school band of brothers, depicting the highs and lows and their brash style while also digging into the suspected steroid use of players on the team. Macho Row is a story of winning and losing, success and failure, and the emotional highs and lows that accompany them.
Macht und Herrschaft: Zur Revision zweier soziologischer Grundbegriffe
by Peter Gostmann Peter-Ulrich Merz-BenzDas Buch befasst sich mit Kernbegriffen der Sozialwissenschaften: Macht und Herrschaft. Mit Beiträgen von Gerhard Wagner, Guy Oakes, Hubert Treiber, Peter Gostmann, Peter-Ulrich Merz-Benz, Dirk Tänzler und Stephen Turner.
Machu Picchu in Context: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Human Past
by Nicola Masini Mariusz Ziółkowski José M. BastanteThis book aims at integrating archaeology with science in order to provide additional information with respect to a traditional archaeological anthropological perspective. It sheds light on Incan culture, the relation between human frequentation and environmental changes, the Incan architecture in relation with Andean cosmovision using, for the first time, diverse technological and scientific approaches including LiDAR remote sensing, geophysics and radio carbon dating. A number of recent studies conducted by Polish, Italian and Peruvian scientific missions in Machu Picchu, Chachabamba and Cusco are presented and discussed.Chapter 5 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.
Mackenzie King in the Age of the Dictators: Canada's Imperial and Foreign Policies
by Roy MacLarenUntil the outbreak of hostilities in 1939, Mackenzie King prided himself on never publicly saying anything derogatory about Hitler or Mussolini, unequivocally supporting the appeasement policies of British prime minister Neville Chamberlain and regarding Hitler as a benign fellow mystic. In Mackenzie King in the Age of the Dictators Roy MacLaren leads readers through the political labyrinth that led to Canada's involvement in the Second World War and its awakening as a forceful nation on the world stage. Prime Minister King's fascination with foreign affairs extended from helping President Theodore Roosevelt exclude “little yellow men” from North America in 1908 to his conviction that appeasement of Hitler and Mussolini should be the cornerstone of Canada's foreign and imperial policies in the 1930s. If war could be avoided, King thought, national unity could be preserved. MacLaren draws extensively from King's diaries and letters and contemporary sources from Britain, the United States, and Canada to describe how King strove to reconcile French Canadian isolationism with English Canadians' commitment to the British Commonwealth. King, MacLaren explains, was convinced by the controversies of the First World War that another such conflagration would be disruptive to Canada. When King finally had to recognize that the Liberals' electoral fortunes depended on English Canada having greater voting power than French Canada, he did not reflect on whether a higher morality and intellectual integrity should transcend his anxieties about national unity. A focused view of an important period in Canadian history, replete with insightful stories, vignettes, and anecdotes, Mackenzie King in the Age of the Dictators shows Canada flexing its foreign policy under King's cautious eye and ultimately ineffective guiding hand.
Mackinac Bridge
by Mike FornesOn November 1, 1957, traffic officially opened on the Mackinac Bridge. That was the culmination of 70 years of talking and dreaming about a bridge acrossthe Straits of Mackinac, of discouraging attempts for legislative and congressional approval, of efforts to raise the funds, and finally of a three-year construction program necessary for the world's longest and costliest (to date) suspension bridge.Michigan's greatest symbol is expertly maintained, fully funded, and amazingly resilient to the many forces and factors of man and nature that have failed to seriously affect its status as the lone highway link between Michigan's two main peninsulas. The "miracle bridge" at the Straits of Mackinac truly allows a view that epitomizes the state motto of Michigan, Si quaeris peninsulam amoenam, circumspice, or "If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you."
Mackinaw City
by Madeline Okerman AdieRich in history, magnificent in scenery, and abundant in hospitality, Mackinaw City lies at the very tip of Michigan's Lower Peninsula and is the area's own majestic playground. From early Native American settlements, French explorers, and fur traders to Mackinaw City founding father Edgar Conkling's vision to build a business center upon the south shore of the Mackinac Straits, Mackinaw City does not disappoint anyone who visits it. Due to its strategic location on the crossroads of the Great Lakes, this area has always been a gathering place for early inhabitants. When the railroad arrived in the late 1800s, it provided needed transportation with unique railroad and car ferries to and from Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Today Mackinaw City still enjoys the distinction of being one of the most popular historical resort areas in Michigan. Through the insight of talented individualswho had the foresight to capture history with the interesting and colorful medium of the postcard, one is able to learn and smile at Mackinaw days gone by.
Maclean
by Allan DonaldsonIn this novel set over the course of a day, an alcoholic, Canadian, World War I veteran attempts to find peace while shopping for a birthday present.Twenty-five years after the Great War, John Maclean is still struggling to carve out a meaningful existence in his small New Brunswick hometown.One late summer day he embarks on a seemingly prosaic search for a little money, a little booze, and a birthday gift for his mother. But he’s haunted by memories—of war, of his cruel father, of opportunities wasted and lost—and each moment is shadowed by his bleak history. Shell-shocked and alcoholic, Maclean is divided between a lonely present and a violent past.With clean and evocative prose, author Allan Donaldson exquisitely depicts a shattered war veteran’s search for peace. Praise for Maclean“Slim yet encompassing, tender yet merciless . . . This book merits a media flurry.” —Globe and Mail (Canada)
Macmillan (Profiles In Power)
by John TurnerHarold Macmillan presided over the dissolution of the British Empire and the first stages of irreversible economic decline. It was an unlucky end to a political career which had seen Britain's steady extinction as a Great Power, and his reputation will depend on how posterity judges his understanding of these changes, and his skill in adapting himself and his country to meet them. This short but trenchant study of his aims, abilities and achievements concentrates on the premiership, against the background of his political education and rise to power.
Macmillan, Khrushchev and the Berlin Crisis, 1958-1960 (Cold War History)
by Kitty NewmanThis new study casts fresh light on the roles of Harold Macmillan and Nikita Khrushchev and their efforts to achieve a compromise settlement on the pivotal Berlin Crisis. Drawing on previously unseen documents and secret archive material, Kitty Newman demonstrates how the British Prime Minister acted to prevent the crisis sliding into a disastrous nuclear conflict. She shows how his visit to Moscow in 1959 was a success, which convinced Khrushchev of a sincere effort to achieve a lasting settlement. Despite the initial reluctance of the French and the Americans, and the consistent opposition of the Germans, Macmillan’s subsequent efforts led to a softening of the Western line on Berlin and to the formulation of a set of proposals that might have achieved a peaceful resolution to the crisis if the Paris Conference of 1960 had not collapsed in acrimony. This volume also assesses Khrushchev’s role, which despite his sometimes intemperate language, was to secure a peaceful settlement which would stabilize the East German regime, maintain the status quo in Europe and prevent the reunification of a resurgent, nuclearized Germany, thereby paving the way for disarmament. This book will be of great interest to all students of post-war diplomacy, Soviet foreign policy, the Cold War and of international relations and strategic studies in general.
Macmillan/McGraw Hill Timelinks: Indiana in the Nation and the World
by James A. Banks Kevin P. Colleary Linda Greenow Walter C. Parker [et al.]Social Studies textbook
Macon
by Glenda Barnes BozemanKnown as the "Heart of Georgia," Macon was an affluent city by the time of the Civil War and escaped the destruction that accompanied Sherman's march to the sea. During Macon's prosperous Victorian period, opulent residences and ornate public buildings were constructed; these, along with those of the antebellum period, have been preserved. Author Glenda Barnes Bozeman resides in nearby Gray, Georgia. Originally from history-rich Pensacola, Florida, and as a Florida Pioneer Descendant, Glenda's love for history and historic places inspired the research that led to Then & Now: Macon.
Macon County
by Dan GuilloryMacon County occupies nearly 600 square miles of fertile farmland in the geographic center of Illinois. Abraham Lincoln made his first Illinois home here, on a pleasant bluff overlooking the Sangamon River, near presentday Harristown. On May 10, 1860, he was first nominated for the presidency in Decatur, the county seat. During the World War I era, Macon County boasted over a dozen hamlets and villages, including Warrensburg and Maroa, which both enjoyed opera houses and busy train stations. Maroa was home to John Crocker, who became a famous banker, while nearby Forsyth produced Black Bart, the infamous bank robber. After World War II, Decatur became known as the "soybean capital of the world." And today, agricultural and industrial workers depend on one another, growing and processing the corn and soybeans that have made Macon County a self-sustaining economic engine.
Macon's Perfect Shot: A Yellowstone Adventure
by M. Mark MillerFourteen-year-old Macon Josey must earn enough money so his widowed mother won't have to give up his baby sister for adoption. He sees a chance when Uncle Bird Calfee offers him a job caring for art equipment on a trip to the brand new Yellowstone Park. Macon's mother fears marauding Indians, boiling geysers and ferocious bears, but Uncle Bird promises her he'll stay on routes that avoid danger, and he'll teach Macon to shoot his father's rifle. Macon learns to be a sharpshooter while he and Uncle Bird travel meeting colorful characters and seeing hot springs, waterfalls, and canyons. This new skill becomes crucial after Uncle Bird falls into a geyser and Macon has to figure out how to get his scalded friend home. The only way is to head straight toward a band of murderous horse thieves.
Macon, Georgia (Black America Series)
by Jeanne Herring Ed.S.In this engaging new visual history showcasing Macon's African Americans, vintage photographs illuminate the contributions and achievements of black citizens who have lived and worked in the heart of Georgia for more than one hundred and fifty years. Local landmarks, such as the Douglass Theater and the Harriet Tubman Museum, and unique African-American communities, such as Summerfield and Pleasant Hill, are testament to the indelible mark left on Macon by its enterprising black residents.
Macroeconomic Measurement Versus Macroeconomic Theory (Routledge Frontiers of Political Economy)
by Merijn KnibbeIdeally, scientific theory and scientific measurement should develop in tandem, but in recent years this has not been the case in economics. There used to be a time when leading economists, or their students, established or led statistical offices and took care that the measurements were consistent with the theory (and vice versa). Not anymore. Macroeconomic theorists and macroeconomic statisticians do not even speak the same language any longer. They do use the same words, such as ‘consumption’, ‘investments’ or ‘unemployment’ but the meanings can often be different. This book maps the differences between macroeconomic theory and measurement and explores them in some detail while also tracking their intellectual, historical and, in some cases, ideological origins. It also explores the possible policy implications. In doing so, the book draws on two separate strands of literature which are seldom used in unison: macro-statistical manuals and theoretical macro-papers. By doing so, the book contributes to the effort to bridge the gap between them without compromising on the idea that a meaningful science of economics should, in the end, be based upon individual people and households and their social and cultural embedding instead of a ‘representative consumer’, or Robinson Crusoe figure. This work is essential reading for students, economists, statisticians, and professionals.